The Silver Lining
by The Architect1
Summary: The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. - Douglas Macarthur
1. Catharsis

The Silver Lining

 _Catharsis_

 _December 2_ _nd_ _, 2013_

The color of her hair; it was the first thing he noticed about her during their first encounter at Westover Hall. The auburn tresses tamed by the silver hairband that formed her ponytail. His eyes drank in the sight of her immense beauty. Her cute button nose, the splash of freckles that trailed across the bridge of her nose and dashed across her cheeks, her naturally pouty lips, her angular jawline, down to her lithe form that enabled her graceful movements. The last feature his eyes had the pleasure of observing were her own as they stared back at him. The bewitching shade of silver that they were had struck him to the core. Sucked him in without so much as a warning. They were cold and demanding, whether of respect or attention he didn't know, and yet there was also a kindness behind them that he could tell was reserved for very few people. Releasing the breath, he hadn't known he was holding, he silently berated himself for being so taken with her at first sight. For the gods' sakes, he didn't even know this girl. He didn't understand why but that familiar tug in his gut that he felt when using his celestial powers…became _so strong_ once he was captured by the allure of her gaze.

Just as he was regaining his senses and he was beginning to zero in on the surrounding voices while they were in a heated discussion. The beauty's mouth began to move and once again he was enraptured. His world came to a halt as her lovely voice flowed like a melody from between those luscious lips of hers. She spoke his name, not much higher than a whisper but the word alone resonated with him as if a gunshot had rung out next to his ear.

"Perseus…", and in that moment, he forgot why he should care that she already knew of him before he got the chance to introduce himself and he that he knows nothing of her but her beauty. It just felt so right, as if every fiber of his being was responding to her beckoning. He didn't know why this was happening yet neither could he bring himself to care. His feet moved towards the girl of their own accord, slowly at first but gradually picking up into purposeful gait.

"Perseus...", She whispered yet again. His feet kept moving and he was by no means ready to deter them from their destination. "Perseus." She spoke his name this time with an authoritative tone and he was taken aback by the strength that now rolled off her in thick waves as he approached but he steeled himself and pressed on. Her voice came again but this time it forced him to snap to attention because it was backed by eleven other voices all yelling at the same time "Perseus!"

He blinked.

He was no longer in the dark forests outside of Westover Hall, now he was on the training grounds of Camp Half-Blood almost five years later. Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs in his head he realized that he had been daydreaming.

"Jeez, Percy." A nearby voice sounded, "I know you're strong and all but I'd appreciate it if you actually focused during our spars." The masculine voice that was laced with irritation belonged to Jason Grace. The young man was handsome and an inch taller than Percy himself standing at an intimidating 6'2", he was also extremely muscular but not so much as to make him look like a meathead. His short cropped blond hair was damp with sweat as his electric blue eyes locked in on Percy. His eyebrows furrowed as his regal features were set into a look of mock anger.

Percy just chuckled in response, "Sorry man, just spaced out there for a second. But it's been a long day, I'm gonna hang it up and head on back to get a head start on dinner.", He said this whilst capping Riptide.

At this Jason relented and adopted a look of concern. "Dude, are you alright? You've been doing a lot of that "spacing out" lately." The superman look-a-like was worried about his best friend. Percy had seemed troubled as of late and for the last couple of weeks, he had noticed his restless nights leaving his cabin just after everyone else falls asleep and roaming the camp until he finally ends at the beach, just gazing at the moon deep in thought.

Percy paused, ready to spill his thoughts to him in that instant but he thought better of it. ' _This is probably the one thing I_ can't _talk to Jason about._ ' The thought crossed his mind. It could cause more issues than anyone could handle if someone knew that he was having nightly dreams of a woman who would literally kill him for doing so. Not to mention that he was currently in a relationship with Annabeth, who would also have his head on a platter if she knew. Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned, right?

He paused for a moment, "…What's the date today?" he finished, chuckling awkwardly while trying to change the subject, "Sorry, I can't seem to remember."

Jason studied Percy for a second sensing the white lie and noting how Percy dodged his question, "It's December 2nd, 2017, and if you ever feel like sharing those thoughts bro, you know where to find me." He offered Percy a sympathetic smile before moving to the wooden dummies to finish his daily training. ' _I wonder what it is that's got him so distant. Oh well he'll talk when he's ready._ 'Knowing how guarded Percy was when it came to certain issues he let it go because that's as far as he was getting.

Percy began his short walk back to the main part of camp and he was bothered. Not specifically by the goddess that had so effortlessly captured his attention all those years ago. But, it was the fact that he also had a girlfriend of almost just as long. He knew he loved Annabeth, he truly did yet this flawless creature…she managed to confuse him and made him question things he should not.

"Oh, Percy you are so going to crash and burn." He murmured to no one in particular, palming his face as he continued his trek. Reaching the middle of camp, he decided to forgo the food for now and head towards the Big House in order to talk to Chiron, his teacher. He was in need of some sage-like words to calm his turbulent mind.

Upon reaching the doors of the Big House he almost got caught across the nose by the door swinging open and the man/centaur himself rolling himself outside. Chiron flashed him an apologetic smile before speaking.

"Ah! Young Percy, it's nice to see you today. How are you feeling?", He asked kindly. His light wrinkles and soft smile reminded Percy of why he considered Chiron to be a father figure to him.

Percy smiled brightly as he was glad to see the old guy, "I'm doing well Chiron, just finished sparring with Jason earlier and I was just wondering if I could ask you for some advice on a subject." He decided to take an indirect approach to this subject so as to omit any information that could quite possibly cause his life to end prematurely if he was overheard.

"Well, I don't see why no-" was all the aged Centaur could get out before an explosion from outside of Camp Half-Blood rocked the foundations of the buildings surrounding them and shook the ground with the force of a small earthquake. "Holy shi-" Percy began as he regained his bearings. Another explosion leveled a portion of the forest outside of their camp. Percy was forced to grab hold of both the porch railing and Chiron's wheelchair in order to keep them from falling.

He looked to Chiron and his mentor nodded to him, showing his consent. Not wasting any time after he made sure that Chiron was fine he hopped the railing and took off running towards the source of the explosions. The closer he got though, a pit formed deep in his stomach that grew as he quickly closed the distance between himself as the plumes of fire that had now risen into the sky. Almost blending in with the radiant setting sun.

Percy noticed that most of the campers were standing at the edge of camp, already armed to the teeth. He could hear demigods all around him as they made way for him to pass them, and he ran at top speed knowing that he was the only one at the camp capable of harnessing enough control over the water in order to put the flames out. As he neared what he assumed to be the battlegrounds he could vaguely hear the sounds of weapons clashing, just barely loud enough for him to hear over the explosions.

And to his utter surprise and horror, once he broke through the tree line, he saw the woman of his dreams kneeling in a deep crater and stopped dead in his tracks. Even as damaged as she was with bruises and cuts, some deeper than others, littering almost every inch of exposed skin. Even with her hunter's garb in tatters and she clutched her silver hunting knives whilst taking a ragged breath. His breath hitched. Frozen in place by the magnificent creature in front of him when they locked eyes. Silver on green. Goddess on Demigod. Phoebe Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt and the Wilderness, Chastity, Maidenhood, and the Moon. And in that split second, that instant the entities as the focus was taken away from the current battle. The enemy that Percy had failed to notice attacked in a flash of light; impaling Artemis through the stomach with his spear made of light that could very well be likened to an extra-large glow stick with pointy ends.

She appeared to have been ready to speak before her jaw slackened and her body crumpled to the ground. The mysterious man stood over her and observed his unconscious enemy before looking back up the edge of the dent in the earth that they created. "Whew, that was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.", He said this in an airy tone as if there wasn't someone currently dying at his feet.

The young man's vision tunneled as he made a mad dash towards the fallen deity. He did not know what propelled his feet forward, but he allowed them to carry him as swiftly as humanly possible. Adrenaline pumped through his body and he could hear his own heartbeat, distant but pounded away like a war drum, behind his ears.

He did not care that there was currently a being nearby that could take out an Olympian Goddess without much more than a scratch. Neither did he care that that same being wasn't even an arm's length away from him anymore as he slid to his knees and scooped the woman up bridal style before dashing away, retreating up the side of the crater and back towards the tree line.

But just before he got there he felt it. His stomach dropped to the ground he was sprinting across as he felt the surge of power from the entity that he just ran away from. As if it was even possible, he felt the muscles in his legs propel him even faster than a human probably should. Granted, he's not completely mortal so anything's possible here. But it was too late.

He saw the man before he heard him. Suddenly the man who had remained completely still as Percy had entered his personal space and left it just as quickly, was standing on the ridge of the large depression with a jovial smile plastered across his carefree face. He looked… happy. But what truly caused Percy to skid to a halt was the fact that the man was smiling directly at him with his eyes closed… his eyes were completely closed meaning that he didn't even consider Percy to be even remotely close to a threat!

The man's long bleach blonde hair flowing down past his back that was two braids above each ear that reached around and connected to the back coupled with his smooth face gave him a very effeminate look. He clutched the unconscious and heavily bleeding goddess even tighter as his mind raced, trying to come up with an escape plan that would enable him to save this immortals' life. However, his thoughts were interrupted when the smiling man spoke.

He motioned toward the spear lodged in Artemis' stomach.

"Hey, kid… I'm gonna need that back."

* * *

The lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, Thalia Grace, sighed in frustration for the 50th time today after her Lady left her and the rest of their troupe stationed on Olympus whilst Lady Artemis was sent on another solo hunt. Thalia paced back and forth near the doors to the throne room. She really had a bad feeling about this, especially because of the fact that the rest of the Olympians had been arguing in what they would like to call a "meeting" for the past half day since the Moon Goddess had departed. Ares the War God was sitting on his throne more interested in picking his nose rather than participate in this debate. Hermes, Demeter, and Hephaestus all watched with a mild interest from their respective thrones. All were silently hoping that they get to see a pair of brothers come to blows… again.

A deep masculine voice thundered across the room.

"I refuse to agree to this ridiculous plan of yours, you fool!"

"Damn it, brother we must act now!" Poseidon countered, anger clearly rippling across his face. He ran a hand through his short and messy ink-black hair and clenched his jaw. The five o' clock shadow blanketed that strong jaw of his seemed to have been permanently trimmed to perfection, further accentuating his godly looks. He had not worn his normal floral button-down t-shirt and instead donned his celestial armor. The intricate designs that flowed across his breastplate to his vambraces seemed to vibrate with power as his anger grew.

"And that we have you halfwit.", Zeus, the God of Thunder began again in order to placate his elder brother. "I have sent my daughter, Artemis on a solo hunt to look for this stranger and bring them to our council, who has been reported be as strong or even stronger than some of the gods present in this room."

At this, a goddess in the form of a child, Hestia the Goddess of the Hearth, Home, and Family, spoke up from her place near the hearth.

"Brothers you both must calm down and think rationally." She reasoned, her being the conscience of their dysfunctional family had its perks because they both visibly calmed as she continued. "Zeus, are you absolutely sure that this was the best option? Because Artemis was actually kidnapped the last time she went solo."

Zeus contemplated this for a moment, stroking his thick and dark beard whilst doing so. "I can see your point sister but she is the best huntress we have."

Athena spoke up this time, from her throne, her calculating grey eyes leveling with Zeus' own. "I don't think she meant that Artemis wasn't the best option you had just that she probably should not have been sent alone."

Thalia perked up, suddenly interested in the conversation. Maybe this meant that they would send her to accompany her lady. That would mean freedom from this stationary job of waiting for her return to Olympus. Just as she was beginning to open her mouth to offer herself, another voice rang out.

"I will go, father."

Thalia's eyes landed upon Lady Artemis' twin brother, Apollo the God of Archery, Light, Healing, Music, Poetry, and the Sun. Before becoming a hunter, she actually found the man to be more than attractive, something Percy would never let her live down because it led to her driving his flying bus. She shuddered at the thought.

" _Never again."_ She thought to herself as she remembered that moment. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts she refocused on Apollo as he stood from his throne.

"No, Apollo I was actually thinking about sending one of the minor gods…" He trailed off because his son had that look in his eye, the one that showed how determined he was to keep his sister safe; even if she didn't think she needed his help. "Never mind, seeing as how you'd probably just leave and go to her without my permission anyways go on ahead.", Zeus acquiesced.

Apollo nodded towards his father and walked towards the doors of the throne room. Although he was a natural fun-loving and easy-going person, he was no nonsense when it came to his sister and being reminded of his previous inability to keep her out of harm's way caused him to steel himself. He was determined to make sure this went soundly as he flashed from the throne room and to where he last felt Artemis' energy just before he reached the doorway.

Thalia just sweat dropped as she wondered why the theatrics. If you can teleport, why even attempt to use doors?

* * *

Jason yelled in frustration. Just as Percy had dashed past the borders of Camp Half-Blood a barrier of light had appeared in front of them, keeping the campers from following him. It was so large that it completely encompassed Camp Half Blood's own barrier; hindering anyone from coming in or out. He didn't like the look of this at all and was less than happy about Percy being out there on his own. Summoning a dry lightning storm atop the barrier he let it loose and struck the barricade with all his might. Yet it wouldn't budge. Not even after five full minutes of nonstop attacks from all of the strongest demigods in camp.

Chiron, had by this point shed his wheelchair, was trotting up to where the campers were currently reacting to the newly shared imprisonment like caged animals.

Jason looked towards Chiron desperately, now definitely consumed with fear for his friend. "Chiron, the barrier won't come down, what do we do?" He asked frantically.

"…There's not much more we can do but wait for young Perseus to return, my boy." Chiron stated with a resigned sigh. He was also extremely worried at what might be waiting for Percy on the other side of these walls. The reason being is that he could feel a power out there that was more ancient than the Olympian Gods themselves.

* * *

Percy was rooted to the spot. He was going to run and every fiber of his being screamed in protest as he stayed still. He couldn't move. As soon as the primal instinct of flight had clawed its way up the darkest part of his mind an immense pressure settled itself on his shoulders and constricted his lungs making it exceptionally difficult to breathe. He remembered feeling but hadn't felt it since…. Since fighting Gaea.

His eyes grew as large as saucers, as he realized that he was more than likely going to die. The unconscious goddess in his arms wasn't the only celestial being in that crater. He clutched his goddess tighter as he understood that he wasn't getting out of this without a fight.

The man, reading Percy's defiant body language, gave a sigh of exasperation and dragged a hand down his face, "Wow kid, I guess you're as dumb as I thought." Noting that the young man made no move to remove the weapon from its current meat sheath and return it to him. "I guess I'll just have to punish you then, you know, because disobedience is unacceptable and all that jazz."

Percy's instincts kicked him into another gear as he jumped back from the explosion of light that erupted where his feet formerly were. Still clutching the goddess, he glared at the man as he only smiled politely back. The demigod's eyes rapidly scanned the surrounding area, looking for somewhere to put her down safely. The Mystery God gave him no time to finish as he appeared in front of Percy in a flash of light punching him across the face in a mighty downward arc with a brain-rattling force that smashed him into the ground. Percy rolled backward to create some distance currently ignoring the ringing in his head and the river of blood coming from his nose and ears.

"Oh, you felt that one, didn't you?" The God asked, nonchalantly rolling his wrist around with a Cheshire grin spreading across his face. "This would be so much easier if you didn't run, you know?"

"Or you could just go back to wherever you came from and stop being the supreme overlord of dicks," Percy replied sarcastically through gritted teeth. It seemed that getting his head rattled a bit shook some of that fear from him.

Shaking his head, the God chuckled and replied, "If that's how you want it to be, then so be it." The God snapped his fingers and the light spear that was previously lodged in Artemis disappeared leaving a large hole in its wake. Ichor flowed from the wound tenfold now that it was unabated.

Percy's eyes widened as the tug in his gut came, snatching the water particles from the air around them he created a small barrier out of it to protect himself and Artemis. "This should buy me enough time to stop the blood flow." He spoke to himself in a hurried tone. He tended to do that when he was under a great deal of stress. Surrounding one hand in the water he willed from the barrier protecting him he laid it on her abdomen and willed it to clot the ichor so it wouldn't continue to try to escape from that gap.

He then tore off the bottom half of his orange camp half-blood t-shirt and used it to create a makeshift tourniquet. Once he tied the ends of the shirt into a knot he looked up to see the deity slowly approaching with a bored look on his face.

" _He waited for me to finish,"_ Percy noted to himself. Percy watched as the man took a couple steps forward until he was within arm's reach and then raised his arm.

Percy didn't know why but got the strongest feeling that he should run, right now. Consequences be damned. All he knew was that this man was really intent on killing him, it was just that he was taking his time in doing so.

The man cocked his head to the side as he noticed his movements were being studied by the boy kneeling behind the barrier. Reaching out with his arm… he flicked the barrier. Just a flick of a finger, no more than you would do to scold an insufferable child. But the deadly nature of this God's power was undeniable.

The strength behind that pluck was enough to completely destroy the barrier and the ground below them that they were resting upon. It threw Percy and Artemis like rag dolls as the dust blew up into clouds in its wake. Artemis finally drew the luckier end of the stick and was simply propelled high into the air as if she was but a small stone.

Percy was tossed out of the crater and through multiple trees also bouncing across the ground like a rubber ball along the way. His unwanted trip through the forest was abruptly ended by a lone boulder just before he reached another clearing.

 _*BOOM*_

A majority of the boulder was destroyed in an instant and the dust cleared to reveal a broken Percy sitting in the rubble, back against the remainder of the boulder. He couldn't move and everything was swimming in his vision. His body was tingling in pain. He looked around frantically searching for Artemis but he didn't see her anywhere near him, not that he would if he could. He couldn't even focus his eyes on Aether himself.

"Well… suffice to say, this was kind of fun.", A condescending voice sounded from some short ways away.

"Eat… a… dick…" Percy croaked out, coughing up more than a little blood he noticed that the man was already nearing him again and that he was still smiling. This lit a fire under him. He came to the conclusion that even though he didn't know who this god was he wanted to kill him just as badly as he needed air.

And so, with a herculean effort, Percy raised himself to a knee. Teeth clenched in pain and his body protesting in agony. Percy finally drew riptide, his trusty sword that he's had since he's known of his celestial heritage, and uncapped the enchanted pen. It extended into sword form and the beautiful sword seemed to cry out for blood as it gave Percy enough strength to rise to his feet. It's time in the possession of Poseidon proving to be useful in this situation because it enhances his connection to all nearby water sources.

It suddenly occurred to him that this whole time he hasn't seen another demigod since he left the camp. He thought they would've backed him up by now. "What the hell was taking them so long?" He seethed inwardly, knowing that the God had something to do with it. He spoke against his better judgment, although it was really only meant to buy him more time to regain more of his strength through riptide. "Who the hell are you?"

The man observed Percy's pitiful state as he actually stopped advancing. "Well, I suppose since you're _not_ dead yet I can at least tell you my name before I end your sad excuse for an existence." He drawled on, making lazy hand gestures further accentuating his utter boredom and lack of interest in Percy.

"I," The God began, "am Aether, the Primordial God of Light."

* * *

Apollo flashed into the forest where he felt Artemis' energy signature last. Yet as he arrived at his destination he felt the power of a god _much_ stronger than that of his sister's. Snapping his head in the direction it was coming from he sensed three people a short way away from him so he flashed to them.

In the half of a second it took for him to get there Aether had already blown Percy and Artemis away and had followed Percy deep into the tree line at the speed of light.

Apollo had a sudden feeling of dread as his godly senses had alerted him to something… no not something… but someone was falling from the sky! He flashed to the person and snatched them from their descent back to the earth and flashed back to the ground only to realize that the person in his arms was indeed his sister.

Now he had a choice to make. One option was to immediately take his sister back Olympus and the other was to help whatever fading energy source against that all too familiar Godly power deeper in the forest. His mind was made up almost immediately as he flashed out of there with Artemis and directly to the throne room.

The only thing running through his mind as he locked eyes with his father, besides the worry for his sister's current state of wellbeing, was why would an elder god the likes of Aether himself would do something like this?

* * *

"All right Aether," Percy said as he struggled to rise to his feet. Stabbing Riptide into the rubble below him to help support his weight he stood at his full height. "Seeing as how you were so gracious as to give me your name, would you mind leaving before I have to make you?"

Percy's grip on the blade tightened tenfold as he finished his sentence. His own aura exploding around himself to accentuate the validity of his threat.

Aether looked bemused, "…are you threatening me kid?"

"Well since there's no one else on earth with a name as dumb as yours I guess I am." Percy shot back with a cheeky grin to boot. Even battered Percy was still all in for a fight and if he was going to die today he was going to die fighting.

Aether paused before speaking again, his interest in the boy suddenly peaked after the short exchange. "Funny, I'm not even supposed to be swatting flies right now," the god chuckled, "I had a goddess to kill… buuuuuuuuut, I like you, so I'll kill you instead." That sickly-sweet smile spread across his face again faster than the black plague. Aether's power surged again to match Percy's own.

Artemis quickly crossed Percy's mind again. _"Hopefully if I distract this prick long enough help will reach her."_ He thought hurriedly as he dropped into his battle stance for what could be the very last time.

Neither of them moved for a couple seconds but for Percy, it seemed like years. He could hear nothing but his own breathing through this tense silence. Aether was just as relaxed as he was when Percy first arrived so nothing changed on his end. He was standing there unarmed as if beckoning Percy to make the first move.

Percy knew he would come to regret this but he also knew it was presently the only way he was going to (hopefully) keep Artemis alive. He charged. Breaking into an all-out sprint he intended to put everything he had into this swing. He was on Aether in a matter of seconds swinging with a strength that may have even rivaled that of Heracles himself…

Aether materialized his light spear as Percy's blade came within an inch of his throat and at a supersonic speed parried the blow. Riptide clanged off the spear and Percy went ballistic. Throwing caution to the wind he attacked in a flurry. Slashes came at Aether from all angles but he managed to deflect them all with ease.

Laughing heartily, Aether pointed a finger at Percy's chest mid-clash and a beam of light shot forth from it and threw Percy back a couple yards. Dragging his feet in the dirt to force his body to come to a complete stop, Percy was going to charge at Aether again but he had already appeared in front of Percy with a bright smile plastered on his face. He was having fun now.

Percy's reflexes saved his life as he bent over backward to avoid the wide swipe of the spear. Pushing off his hands into a flip that sent himself into the air, Percy swiped his hand across where he saw Aether standing and not even a second later all the water in that spot was pulled from the air and smashed against Aether.

Aether was caught completely off guard by the attack and was flung from the spot. He flew into the nearby trees creating a dust cloud in his wake as his body destroyed some of the terrains in his wake. Percy landed quite roughly but readied his sword again. As tired as he was from that last attack he was far from making mistakes due to fatigue. Pulling himself together he watched the tree-line and waited for Aether to return.

Aether's lips were set into a hard line. He couldn't believe this! This was preposterous! A mere demigod was able to inflict damage on him. Not just that but even to the point of drawing blood and ripping his new clothes. That boy would come to regret ever doing that, he would make sure of that. Aether stood from his current place in the dirt, blood flowing from a deep gash in the side of his head and an arm bent at an odd angle. His clothes ruined with cuts and missing pieces riddled everywhere. His teeth ground together as he imagined the things he would do to this boy when he caught him.

Percy watched intently as he saw Aether step back into his line of sight. Grinning slightly, he taunted the god a little to make sure that he had nothing but his complete attention, "Hm, you felt that one, didn't you?" He jeered and the god's nostrils flared at having his insult from earlier thrown back at him. "Oh, and you've got a little something… right… there." Percy was chuckling now, using his free hand to point to the side of his head.

Rage. That's what the god currently felt as he stared at this insolent demigod. He would end his wretched existence. Yes, that sounded lovely. He spoke yet his voice was several levels deeper than before, "I applaud your effort here today, boy. Yet, you will die here today as a direct consequence of your insolence. No one will be coming to your aid. Not even your puny camp mates as they are quite busy at the moment with doing a whole lot of nothing. It's just you and me until you are no more." After his arm snapped back into place, Aether pushed off the ground and took off with the force of a freight train, a leaving a dent in the earth in his wake.

*BOOM*

Percy blinked at the sudden explosion and just as quickly Aether had closed the distance between them and grabbed Percy by the face and threw him into the ground. Percy's body dragged across the ground as he was helpless to stop his own momentum. Looking up he saw that Aether was standing behind him now with his foot raised high in the air.

Percy tried to get up but was still incapable of doing so, he ended up coming to a stop right beneath Aether's foot and being forced to block with riptide at the very last second when it came down with enough strength to shake a mountain at its foundations.

The explosion of dirt and rock that resulted from the blow was absolutely ridiculous. The dust cloud reached higher than the treetops and the debris flew in all directions. Percy's head was dipped back into the dirt behind him in his own mini sinkhole while the rest of his body was a little higher in a newly formed crater. Aether scoffed at the fact that the demigod wasn't dead yet and snatched Percy from his place in the ground, holding him in the air with one arm.

Percy, with his head now free of its restraints looked at Aether, one eye swollen shut, and spat a glob of blood at him. Aether growled and dropped Percy and to his mild surprise, Percy landed on his feet. Aether gave a cruel smile and proceeded to beat the life out of Percy. Punches rained on the demigod from every direction possible. There were no pauses in the brutal assault. There we no a from the torso up that the God didn't hit. All the while Percy was powerless to defend himself. Eyes rolling backward he tried to raise his sword but his arms wouldn't cooperate. Riptide hung loosely from his right hand as he lost feeling in his left. He could vaguely hear laughing far off in the distance, although, he knew it was coming from Aether himself. As heavily damaged as Percy was though he refused to let himself fall. And so, he stood. Being beaten senseless with a seemingly endless attack. Angry red bruises sprouted up everywhere on Percy's upper body, skin split in multiple places and cuts formed.

Every blow that landed forced a different image to flash across Percy's mind. He saw different times in his life and many people that he held near and dear to him. People that he wouldn't hesitate to throw his life away for. Annabeth was first, his wise girl would always be important to him even if there was another that invaded his thoughts. Then there was Thalia, Nico, and Jason. He knew that all of them felt the same way about him that he did for them. Next was his mom and oh, how he loved her so. He knew that if it came down to it he would sacrifice the world itself for her (Even though she probably wouldn't approve). And then there was Artemis. She stood before him in his vision in all her glory and he could not help but shed a lone tear at the thought of not being able to see her again. But, he had to do what was necessary in order to make sure she was safe and that at the moment was giving his own life.

Percy's body finally went limp as Aether drew his arm back for the last and most devastating blow. Swinging with the intent to kill he caught Percy square in the mouth while he was on his way down to the ground. The force behind the punch threw him straight back from where he was and towards the trees. He flew helplessly towards the tree that would surely be the cause of a broken neck but just before he made an impact he was caught by someone.

Apollo looked up at Aether with a look that would've torched him if looks could kill. His eyes glowed with a power that was not unlike Aether's own. A childish smile crossed Aether's face. "So, you decided to actually join the fun Apollo?"

"No, we both did.", Came Apollo's frosty reply.

Aether's eyes widened slightly as the ground began to shake violently. His head snapped in the direction of the localized tremor and saw the Sea God himself step into sight. _"This is definitely not ideal."_ , he thought to himself quickly as racked his brain for a way to a quick escape. One Olympian? He'd have more than enough of a struggle with the likes of Apollo but it could be done. Two Olympians? And one is a Big Three at that? He'd be lucky to make it out with all of his body parts intact.

Poseidon was shaking with barely contained rage. His eyes left Aether's for a moment and landed on the unconscious form of his son hanging limply in Apollo's arms. The poor boy had been beaten within an inch of his life and would've actually been killed had they not arrived in the nick of time.

"Now seeing as my counterpart isn't in any mood to have a conversation with you, I guess I'll do the questioning." Apollo began quite crossly, had it been his decision they'd be spilling Primordial blood right now but his Athena had persuaded Zeus that it would be wiser to try to figure out what he was doing here and why. "What the hell are you doing here, Aether?", He hissed venomously.

Aether was relaxed again as he felt that it would be more interesting to indulge this interrogation. "I'm here because I want to be." He said simply, shrugging his shoulder nonchalantly whilst doing so. "It's not like I can't come down to play every once in a while."

Apollo, however, was not moved by the white lie. He laid Percy down in the grass behind him and turned back towards Aether with his bow already materialized and three arrows knocked. "I'll ask my question again… yet this will be the last time I ask you." He said threateningly, ready for the slightest movement so he could relieve the itch in his trigger finger. " _What_ are you doing here?" This time the question came with as much godly authority he could muster into it to convey the seriousness of the situation.

"Alright, alright." Aether raised his hands in mock surrender, a knowing smile playing across his face. "You win, I'll spill the magic beans." He added with a wink.

Apollo's patience was currently wearing thin and he didn't know how much longer he had until Poseidon's anger would most likely wreak havoc on Aether and the entire east coast of America. "Then cut the crap and spill them, asshole.", He all but growled through gritted teeth.

"Hey now, that's no way to talk to someone who's about to freely give you important information; Now is it?" Aether spoke teasingly, wagging his finger condescendingly as if he was talking to a child. Apollo bristled at the remark but didn't get to respond as Aether continued to speak. "Anyways, congrats kids." Aether began again brightly. "You've ruled the world so far and it's not looking too shabby to be completely honest with you. Like seriously, I like what you've done with the place in our absence. Buuuuuuuuut, it's just not gonna cut it."

This confused Apollo and Poseidon both. What did the way they've been going about things have anything to with this?

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but… you are now at war." His voice dropped several pitches and the air around them seemed to get a tad bit colder.

Apollo's stomach dropped and Poseidon had materialized his trident and now had it pointed towards Aether's head. _"Another war? Haven't our people been enough of those already as it is? It hasn't even been a full two years since the last one and we still haven't fully recovered from the devastation it caused and the grief of our lost loved ones. This doesn't even make sense. Aether hasn't even given a clear motive as to why we're now at war. So why must we sacrifice ourselves and our children once again for no good reason? This is utterly absurd! Preposterous! I refuse to have my own son on the front lines risking everything for us again! Aether. Will. Die. Here and now!"_ Poseidon's racing thoughts had become a crescendo of anger and when it reached its highest note, he exploded.

Aether picked up on the fact that it was now his cue to depart. The earth convulsed and split beneath his feet and he was forced to vault away from his position or he would've surely been swallowed by the earthquake that followed. Aether landed farther away from the pair shortly before he was forced to twist his body in such a way that would make a ballerina jealous, for Apollo's arrows came flying at him with a ridiculous speed and he dodged them by the skin of his teeth.

He felt the wind pick up until it rivaled that of a category three hurricane and it snatched him from his feet and threw him fast past and above the trees. Continuing to weightlessly travel around in circles carried by this wretched weather, he had no doubt in his mind that he was currently caught in a tornado the size of Godzilla. _"Poseidon must really want me dead."_ He thought absentmindedly. Nonetheless, He was growing quite worried. This could really get him killed if he doesn't start taking them seriously. The two as a team but not be the most well rounded but both of their power combined have the potential to force him to fade. And that wouldn't be good at all.

Suddenly, he felt his body dropping from the sky as Poseidon released him. He saw them standing below him as his body rapidly approached them at ungodly speeds. Both of them standing at attention ready to cut him down once he was within reach. He smiled cheekily to himself as he came up with an idea to counter that. Once he came within 15 meters of them he placed both of his hands on his face and yelled…

"SOLAR FLARE!"

A light that had enough brightness to rival that of the sun came from Aether's body and completely blinded Poseidon immediately as he was mid-thrust with his spear. Apollo though, also having the domain of light, was largely unaffected by it but merely caught off guard by the unorthodox use of the domain. He didn't even know it could be used like that.

Aether's hasty gamble was rewarded when Poseidon's Trident passed harmlessly over his body and Apollo was too awed by what he just pulled off to do anything but watch him fall past them. Just as his nose came within an inch of coming in contact with the ground, however, he flashed away leaving a dumbfounded Apollo standing there trying to calm a wild and blind Sea God.

Next: _Animal Kingdom_


	2. The Animal Kingdom

The Silver Lining

 _The Animal Kingdom_

 _April 19th, 2009_

Yancy Academy's classroom was buzzing with energy. There were paper balls flying around the classroom trying to knock the paper airplanes out of orbit. Some pushed and shoved each other, while others gave wedgies and wet willies. Kids talking about random nonsensical things as other students played Bloody Knuckles. Amidst all this, however, one little boy was drawing a large penis on the whiteboard in permanent marker then drawing over it in regular marker, disguising it as a cat.

Another small boy seemed to be watching him do this, his hand propped up under his chin, but upon closer inspection, it was clear to see that he was not actually paying attention at all. The boy at the board turned around to show his friend the work of genius he created but instead found a blank expression.

"Hey Percy, you're drooling a little bit there."

A ten-year-old Percy blinked twice, snapping back to reality. He looked at his friend who happened to be sitting next to him. "Sorry, Damien… I've just got a lot on my mind lately." He apologized.

"Whatever dude," Damien chuckled knowing he could snap him out of his funk before continuing, "welcome back to the land of the living by the way."

"Gee thanks, I appreciate the warm welcome." Percy's sarcastic reply came back smoothly.

Damien's trademark cheeky grin was aimed at Percy now, "You're absolutely welcome." He looked up to the door, noting the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the hall.

"Okay, so that's either Ms. Shuttlesworth ooooor that's Bigfoot." He said whilst cringing. The thought of the behemoth of a woman forcing the action.

Percy listened for a short moment too.

 _Thump. Thump. Thump._

"It's definitely her," He joked "I don't think even bigfoot walks like that"

"Well, I would hope not," Damien responded in kind "Otherwise Bigfoot would have some serious work to do to fix that."

"What about Ms. Shuttlesworth?"

"She's a lost cause, Percy," Damien said before they both laughed. The heavy footsteps stopped outside of the classroom door and as soon as that happened all noise within ceased at once.

Every student had their bums planted firmly in their chairs and their back straight as a board. No one wanted to get on her bad side. Well, no one but Percy who seemed to have a death wish.

The doorknob turned and in came short and stout old lady that had all the features of Roz from Monsters Inc. A mean woman who was rotten to the core and took no pleasure in the kids' games. In fact, they drove her to fitful rages almost every class period until she got the permission to punish them with rulers.

Ms. Shuttlesworth hobbled into the class and started her lecture on the history of mankind. Percy immediately opted to stare out the window as she began her tirade. He had no interest in learning whatever she was talking about and was completely content with just watching the clouds roll by in order to pass the time.

Damien sat up straight in his chair like everyone else, noting how Percy was the only one who was slouching over in his seat. He wasn't the only one who noticed either, for Ms. Shuttlesworth had been eyeing him strangely the entire class period. There was something _different_ about the look she gave him. It was almost predatory like she had missed lunch and was looking at a four-course meal. He saw her lick her lips hungrily before she made to move down their aisle.

"What the?" Damien was absolutely dumbfounded, he had never seen anyone act like this before yet somehow he knew that she might... try to _eat_ Percy.

A ruler slammed down on Percy's desk, causing him to jump. He snapped to attention and looked up directly into the frames of Ms. Shuttlesworth's horn-rimmed glasses. There was a long pause between the two of them before Percy spoke up.

"Uh... haha... Ms. Shuttlesworth?" He chuckled awkwardly, "is everything alri-"

She cut him off abruptly and began to speak, "Would you like to relay to the class your knowledge on our subject today Perseus?"

"Uhm... uhh..."

"Right, I suppose you cannot because you have not been paying any attention _this entire time_." She hissed venomously, there were a couple muffled chuckles from some of the other students, but they were quickly shut down. "Silence!"

The entire class was as silent as a graveyard after that. No one dared make a sound lest they be punished with Percy. Damien gripped his pencil until his hand shook, not at all okay with the way this was about to go, but he continued to face the front of the class. Ms. Shuttlesworth's gaze drifted to Damien out of the corner of her eye. She sniffed lightly, so as not to raise any suspicions of her actions. A smell of the sea drifted in from the right, tickling her nose as she sniffed. But, under that scent she realized, was another smell of the sea, more ancient... more powerful... more delicious. It was coming from the boy who had tensed up as soon as she came within an arm's reach of himself and Perseus. "Interesting," she thought to herself.

"Stay behind after class, Mr. Jackson," She spoke directly to Percy, but knew that Damien was listening to every word. He would come too, and she would see her belly filled this day.

Percy, seeing no way out of this, agreed to her demand. Even though he would much rather go back to his and Damien's room to play Dragon Ball Z until Math class started. An hour later, Percy was still sitting at his desk moments after everyone else had left. Percy was tapping his index finger on the desk, which was a direct result of both his A.D.D and his nervousness.

Ms. Shuttlesworth stood at the front of the class, tapping her ruler on her desk lightly. As repulsive as she was, she was equally intimidating. The glare from the sun on her lenses shielded her eyes from his view. This made the whole situation seem ominous as he began to fidget in his seat more.

"So, Perseus," she began slowly as she slinked down the aisle, "Do you know what it's like to be eaten alive?"

Dread sank into the pit of Percy's stomach as the reality of his situation hit him full force. He realized that her idea of punishment was much more sinister than he initially thought. His eyes flitted to the door across the room, but it seemed too far to get to before she would reach him.

She smacked her ruler on the desk in front of his and it changed shape. It suddenly looked more like a serrated whip than a ruler. Percy stood from his seat immediately and backed up a few paces. Trying to create some distance between the two of them.

"To have the flesh stripped from your bones?" She continued "Of course you don't... not yet,"

She smiled evilly at him while cackling loudly, sending a shiver down Percy's spine. She cracked her neck on both sides as she continued to stalk forward towards Percy, standing straighter with every step. She let her whip extend to its full length as she grinned at him. She grew as she walked, now standing 8 feet Percy could make out one slitted, golden eye peeking out from behind the glare in her lenses.

He did not understand what was going on. one minute he was in class, just minding his business and the next he was knee-deep in who-knows-what. His back hit the wall and he realized that he couldn't back away from her anymore. Her face shifted between something human and something... downright ghastly. Fear gripped him as he desperately searched for a way out of this.

Suddenly, a rubber dodgeball impacted the side of Ms. Shuttlesworth's face and threw her off balance. Percy took this advantage immediately and ran by her and towards the door as he saw Damien standing there with an entire rack of the dodgeballs, that he had just stolen from the gym.

Golden eyes snapped to the boys and her whip lashed out on its own, as an extension of her will. It wrapped around Percy's arm, cutting into him deeply and snatching him from the floor. His feet slipped from under him and he fell to the floor before being dragged back to her. Damien zipped another dodgeball across the room at her before diving to grab Percy by his legs. Pulling against the strength of the whip he managed to overpower it and force it to let go.

They both stood up quickly before dashing to the door, a shrill scream of anger following them out of the room. Wasting no time and not looking back, they sprinted for the front doors. Percy, being much faster than Damien, as Damien was much stronger, was leading their escape. Turning multiple corners, they did not turn back to see if she was following. They knew she was, as her bare feet slapped the marble floors in her attempt to catch them. The footsteps got dangerously closer and closer as they approached the front doors. Just as they burst through the front doors they were met with a blinding amount of sunlight. Percy whipped around and slammed the doors shut behind him, even though he could no longer hear any feet pounding behind him.

Percy slumped against the closed door, panting heavily as Damien bent over and did the same. "What," Percy wheezed out, "what the heck was that!?"

Damien was too shellshocked to respond. He gasped for air because he knew what she was. Alkyone was her name, a giantess created by his father in order to test him. But there was no way he could fight that monster while Percy was here. He was just a normal kid and exposing that kind of world to him would break him.

Percy looked to Damien but found nothing of the sort, just silence. "Alright dude, listen, I'm on my last strike at this school, okay?"

This garnered Damien's attention, "Yeah I figured that much," he sighed.

Percy continued, "So, this giant chick? Yeah, she's keeping us out of math class and if they think that I'm skipping, they're gonna ship me out of here," he whisper-yelled this at Damien, not wanting to get caught outside of the school.

"Well, what do you expect to do?" Damien yelled at him, "Walk back in there and into her waiting arms?"

"No... I was thinking that maybe we could sneak back in... and go to the Dean's office."

* * *

 _December 2nd, 2017_

Finals week has served to be the single most stressful thing to have ever been created.

Damien Grayson looked up from his desk that was completely covered in an assortment of papers. His room was still a mess and his mom had definitely told him to clean up a week ago, but he had been so busy he still hasn't found a good time to do it. His room, however, wasn't extremely large. In fact, it was quite the average size so it's not like cleaning it would be super difficult. A couple dressers here and there, a regular twin sized bed in the corner, a stand-alone mirror, a tall lamp next to that, and finally his desk was over by the door. Sighing heavily, accentuating the sheer weight of his fatigue, he ran a hand through his messy dark brown hair. Slicking it back to its usual uniformed yet still untamed look, a few loose strands of hair that always refused to comply with his wishes continued to hang freely in his face. Getting up from the personal hell he called studying, he walked over to the stand-up mirror.

Looking himself over quickly he made sure that his appearance was feasible before he left for class. His ocean blue eyes searched his own face that was for lack of a better term, much better than just simply good looking. His slightly bent eyebrows helped frame his heart-shaped face. His strong jawline gave off an air of superiority that he was too humble to express. His corded muscles peeked their way through his plain, black V-neck. Looking farther down he reviewed the gray joggers he had on down to the black Roshi Runs. He definitely fit the part of a regular college student.

He stood at a modest height, s just over six feet tall. Funnily enough though, out of all his friends he was considered to be the second shortest guy. Right in front of Cyrus of course, who was 5 feet and 8 inches tall.

"You gonna stand there and admire yourself all day or are you ready to go yet your highness?" He heard a sarcastic remark come from the door. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. There stood Cyrus in all of his vertically challenged glory leaning against the doorway wearing his favorite powder blue UNC hoodie. His ear-length and wildly curly platinum blonde hair coupled with his sharp facial features gave him a rather feral look, but it worked in his favor because the ladies loved it. He was a well-known lady killer with the physique of a track star. Cyrus has been Damien's right-hand man since as far back as Damien could remember. This was further proven by the fact that Cyrus, now nineteen years old, has been living with Damien and his mother, whose name was Jennifer, as a sort of the second son since he was 12 years old.

"Yeah yeah, I'm ready to go man.", Damien chuckled in response. Knowing full well that patience was an unknown virtue to Cyrus. "You don't think we have enough time to slide through the café before our first test, do you?" He asked with a hopeful smile gracing his face, as he was quite hungry at the moment.

Cyrus though deadpanned at him "…Of course not dickhead, you wasted that time having eye sex with yourself in the mirror there." He said nonchalantly, lazily flicking a hand towards the mirror. "Now bring your ass, and maybe we'll actually be on time for this test."

"Aye captain!" Damien chirped happily, knowing full well that Cyrus would find a way to get him some food before that test. This is how it's always been. Cyrus has always been the older brother to Damien since Jennifer took him in. Protecting him from harm, when need be of course because Cyrus was a firm believer in the fact that Damien needed to learn how to defend himself. Even going so far as to be the one to teach him the basics of fighting. Going the extra length for Damien even though he knew he didn't have to.

The walk to the campus of Ohio State University was a short one. The heat from the early morning sun had sat lightly on the back of Damien's neck. Though it was clear that this near perfect weather wouldn't last long for there were rain clouds rolling in from the distance. The birds sang happily across the two continued on their way to school. A light wind blew in cooling the boys down even more.

Damien and Cyrus had split somewhere along the way and now Damien was waiting for his first class to start. _"All right, this doesn't seem like the worst thing in the world."_ Mused Damien. _"Just have to finish this test and move onto the next, easy as pie."_

Just as the thought crossed his mind though, his stomach protested against the thought, giving deep rumble in response. He sweat dropped, _"Well never mind, I guess it won't be as easy as I thought."_ Scratching his head, he looked up towards the door and saw Cyrus standing there out of breath as if he just finished sprinting a whole marathon.

The first question that came to Damien's mind was _"what the-?"_ but the words never passed his lips. Instead, he shot out of his chair abruptly, startling the rest of the students that were currently waiting for the professor to arrive. He knew something was horribly wrong from the alarmed look that seemed to be etched into Cyrus's usually bored expression.

They felt it then, an all too familiar energy spiked more than a few miles from the school. Yet, it was so large that they could feel it in the school.

"David!" They both spoke at once, coming to the realization that school was going to close early for them today. They both took off towards the source of the energy as fast as their legs would carry them. Hopefully, they got there before David released his true power against whoever he was fighting and killed every living being within his immediate 100-mile radius.

* * *

Being a son of Akhlys has both downsides and upsides to it. The downsides were an extreme lack of control, whether it came it negative emotions or powers, and being much further from than the average human being in everything physical. As for the upsides… well never mind, there are no upsides to it.

All in all, it blows.

David James was currently the farthest from happy he could possibly be at this point. Not that he ever really was very happy, to say the least, but still. He thought today was going to turn out like all the other days that filled him with a sense of contentment.

Wake up. Get dressed. Eat. Go to class. Go home. Shower. Eat. Sleep. Rinse and repeat.

But no, he _just had to_ have just so happened to stumble across a Demigod from another Pantheon on his way there. The teen's name was Nico, apparently. Oh, _how original_.

"I hate my life." He mumbled to himself, quite fed up with this current intrusion in his daily routine.

The birds in the forested area that they were currently in chirped in song as though they were trying to brighten his day. A feeble attempt. He had only come this deep into the woods in order to lose Nico along the way but the boy pressed on and followed him anyways. Seems like he couldn't take a hint.

"Well I've been trying to help you for the past 15 goddamn minutes and you're still ignoring me." Nico di Angelo stated matter of factly. He had actually been talking David's head off the entire time trying to convince him that coming to Camp Half-Blood would be a good idea. He figured since he does a lot of traveling now that they're in peace times he might as well help some other demigods along the way.

Nico had noticed that this guy was quite different from the rest of demigods he's met so far. Besides his haggard and bone-thin appearance, with his pale hair and skin alike, sunken cheeks and all. He looked more like a walking skeleton, to be frank, especially being clothed in his white and black striped shirt and pants. Otherwise, there were a few reasons that stood out to Nico.

Reason number one: He's way too old to be a normal one because usually demigods that haven't found their way to a camp around 13 years old are killed off by monsters.

Reason number two: The guy's energy was thick and heavy around him, almost to the point of being miasmic, which is what tipped Nico off to him being a demigod in the first place.

Reason number three: He's been completely absorbed in his own thoughts since he laid eyes on Nico. Ignoring him and yet still not leaving so Nico guessed that eventually, their one-sided conversation would actually get to the second side.

David looked up at Nico and studied him. He seemed like an asshat from the first impression, and those mean everything to David. Nico had shaggy black hair that led down to a mundane face. A mundane face that led down to a short-ish (5'9 and some generous change) body that was a pitifully lanky thing. He wore a black hoodie with black ripped jeans and black vans.

"All black, hm? Yeah, you even dress like a prick." David had finally spoken to Nico directly and he had already insulted him. Just another perk of dealing with his personality.

Nico bristled immediately, nostrils flaring in response to the insult.

"Hey! I was just trying to help, alright?"

"Yeah, that's fine and all but have you ever stopped to think that I never needed help in the first place?" The stripe wearing man drawled sardonically. This caused Nico to narrow his eyes and shoot a barb back.

"Dude, anyone would think you need help, you look emaciated for crying out loud," Nico said, his frustration was palpable now. Letting his impatience be known, he continued to rip David a new one.

Now, there's something that needs to be known about David. He was incredibly sensitive. Yes, he can dish out barbs with the best of them but when his personal image was concerned, he was a completely different person. It didn't take much to push him over the edge but that was because he was never far from it. Always teetering on the thin line between his false sense of normality and his perpetual suffering.

This can be attributed to being subjected to incessant bullying throughout more than half his 20 years walking this wretched earth and the slightest nudge could send him right back into his shell.

Misery.

Oh, how she loved his company.

He could never escape her cold embrace. He could feel it. She was here, with him, right now. He shivered as felt her crawl up his back slowly, like a spider. She wrapped herself around him tightly. Seizing his chest in her vice-like grip.

It was suffocating.

He forgot how to breathe for a second as he feebly focused all his strength on trying to regain his composure but, to no avail.

Ah, yes. He almost forgot, his mother would never let him experience any semblance of happiness. For she wanted him to suffer with her until he could no more.

Every haunting memory from his scarred childhood came back with a concussive force. The weight of all his guilt had settled itself on his already sagging shoulders. He didn't want any of this. It wasn't his fault.

Being sent home with "mysterious" bruises every day because he never tattled on the kids who tormented him. Even though the teachers had ideas of what was occurring, they never said anything about it because he didn't. He knew it would only get worse if he did so he endured it. The toilet dunking, the spitball shooting, the brutal assaults, the name-calling, the bare-ass pantsing, you name it. He endured it all. He had though, been pushed to the point of committing suicide multiple times, up until he was 16. He had tried a grand total of 56 times. His mother, however, would not have it, sabotaging the fruitless endeavors in some way or another.

She would not allow for his agony to be ended so easily. His life would hold no meaning when she decided it was his time to finally rest. Until then, he would share her burden and know the meaning of true misery.

His father, the only ray of sunshine in any gloomy day he ever had, was killed on David's thirteenth birthday. Viciously beaten and murdered for his rent money on the corner of 21st and 22nd street. The evil gang of men that night had robbed his father not only of his possessions, including David's birthday present that he had worked overtime to have the money to buy it but of his life. And the young David had watched the entire scene from the window of their trailer.

Insipid tears rolled down David's face as he looked at Nico with an accusing stare. _'He did this to me.'_ David laid all the blame on Nico. The son of Hades was completely taken aback by the sudden change of mood in this grown man. Silently crying whilst giving him the stare of death like a complete child. Nico was definitely not intimated by this guy. Maybe he would have been if it had been someone the likes of Percy, but this guy looked like he could hardly lift a pebble let alone pose a threat to him.

Suddenly, those cocky thoughts Nico was tossing around in his head had receded into the back of his mind as he noticed that those had turned black. The now toxically dark droplets had become rivulets running freely from both eyes. They had stained his pale face, leaving lines the color of ink in their wake. One teardrop had escaped his face, contorted into the complete visage of pain.

The moment that droplet hit the ground Nico backpedaled a couple steps as fast as he could. He was completely on edge now. The reason being is that the tear had immediately killed any grass in David's immediate vicinity. A thick miasma-like aura surrounded David and began to spasm uncontrollably like a muscle cramp.

It was completely oppressive, Nico realized. The poisonous gas that was being released into the air was heavy enough to force the demigod to his knees.

Nico melted into the shadow of the tree he was currently kneeling under in order to escape David's noxious wrath.

David looked around rapidly as he searched for Nico. Hearing a rustle in the trees behind him, he turned only to see 200 heavily armed skeleton warriors dashing towards him at full speed. He sent a wave of the miasma directly towards them that swept them off their feet.

They decayed before they hit the ground.

If Nico didn't know that this guy was a top tier threat before, he definitely did now. He was currently hiding in some nearby tree branches studying his newly registered enemy.

Reaching into a nearby shadow, he pulled his Stygian Iron sword free from its confinement. He knew that there was no getting out of this unscathed because he couldn't just leave a rogue demigod this dangerous out here to roam freely and at this point, there was obviously no talking him down from this ledge he was about to vault from.

Looking back towards the demigod, he was surprised to find that David was no longer there.

' _Where did he...'_ Nico's thoughts were interrupted as he was forced to recoil from where he was just crouching because David's face was suddenly only mere inches away from his own. David had somehow closed the gap between them and was now hanging from a branch in the same tree that Nico was in.

Nico's body reacted before his mind did.

Swinging his sword violently out of fear it cleaved right through David's left forearm as he brought it up to defend himself. The force behind the swing threw David out of the tree and straight into the dirt below.

Cold fear had settled itself in the pit of Nico's stomach. He was shaking, and it was only made worse by David's reaction to the loss of his arm.

A guttural screech was ripped from David's throat as he looked at his arm. He watched as not blood, but a thick purple goo-like substance fell from his nub. It burned like all hell. Even to the point of burning him worse than syphilis would a disease-ridden scumbag. It poured freely making Nico wonder if David actually had any blood in his body, to begin with.

Suddenly, David's eyes refocused and snapped towards Nico with an intensity that he had never felt before. The goo that was still flowing from his arm shot straight towards the tree Nico was in… and directly through it. The volatile substance ate clean through the base of the tree immediately snatching its support from beneath it.

The tree fell and this forced Nico to jump from it or risk being crushed in the crossfire. His leap from one tree to the next was very nearly ended prematurely by the substance flying right past his leg as he went airborne. Landing roughly on one of the highest branches Nico swung his head around to see it flying towards him again. He dived to another thick branch about ten feet below him, and this saved his life. The goo made it to Nico's position before he could dodge though and hardened, shooting out spikes in all directions and one of the longer ones had struck Nico in the leg.

It came out on the other side of his thigh just as easy as it went in the front.

Nico felt a burning sensation fly up his legs. Hot and raw, like he had shoved his hand in a pot full of boiling oil. He clenched his teeth to bite down a scream as he forcibly removed the spike from his leg so he could have his mobility back. _'I need to end this as quickly as possible so I can get out of here!'_ He thought to himself quickly, he knew that he was going to have to kill David if he was to have any chance of survival at this point.

David however, wanted to kill Nico. He wanted it as bad as the air he breathed. As bad as the food he ate. He needed it, the release of all that weight from his past failures and regrets. To lay responsibility on someone else for a change and have them answer for their actions. Fuck him. He didn't deserve to live. He must die. He must die. He must die. He must die. He must die.

"DIE!" Was all Nico heard before he vaulted from his spot in the trees and threw his sword at David. It flew right by the bullet of pure poison that David had already shot at Nico. David had known where Nico was going to pop up. He knew.

David cackled maniacally as his black blood spurted from where the Stygian iron sword was currently lodged in his body. The blade had definitely proven it was more than enough to cleave through bone as was sitting perfectly still in his ribcage. It had sliced its way through his clavicle and he could no longer feel his right arm. But he didn't care. He got him. He finally got him.

Nico had nothing to defend himself with as he fell helplessly to the ground: he was caught. So, he used his hand. One hand outstretched from his body while being braced by his other. He called upon the bones of the nearby dead to come forth from the earth and protect him. The bones only made a flimsy half-formed gauntlet around his hand in their haste to protect their master.

The bullet ate right through it.

Leaning his upper body backward at the very last second, he was able to dodge an extremely quick death. The bullet, however, kept going, eating through trees and other unfortunate obstacles along its path. Nico had no time to recover, no time to scream, and no time to run.

David's maniacal grin was inches from his own disturbed face, the moment his unsteady feet touched the ground. Nico backpedaled as fast as he could but David had already opened his mouth. It cracked and snapped as it stretched to ungodly proportions. No human being should be able to do this to themselves, let alone survive it. But there David stood, letting a thick miasma roll from his enlarged esophagus.

Fear gripped Nico as he started to move away from him faster. _'Shit shit shit! This freak is straight out of a horror movie!'_ , The lone thought rose above the chaotic state of mind he was currently in.

As soon as the green poison's lovely smell reached Nico's nose it was over.

He relaxed immediately as he blinked and opened his eyes to a field of flowers. It was absolutely beautiful with a plethora of vibrant colors ranging from the reddest of reds and the bluest of blues. There were even multicolored ones dotting the meadow. The sun was high in the light blue sky and shining proudly. Clouds that looked softer than cotton floated across the sky freely.

He didn't even question the fact that he was in no danger all of a sudden. His whole body loosened up and honestly, he was feeling the best that he had in weeks. He still had his injuries, however: the gaping hole in his hand and the solid spike of noxious poison jutting from his leg. But, they didn't hurt. They were just… there. That didn't bother him one bit though as he was plain happy. Looking at his surroundings to take in the sights, he took in a deep breath. Inhaling more of that sweet smell of flowers. He swan-dived into them, intending to enjoy feeling them. But, he hit the ground on his feet again and he was back where he started.

Warm fingers ghosted across the nape of his neck. It was so comforting, so… familiar. Nico turned to face the person behind him but was surprised to find no one there. He felt light breathing in the crook of his neck now and a familiar weight settled itself of his shoulder. Olive skinned arms wrapped themselves around his torso enveloping him in a warmth he hadn't felt since…

"Hey there, Nico" Her voice, he hadn't heard it in years. She was back. She finally came back to him.

His voice choked up, "…Bianca, I've missed you so much." His sister had died many years ago, yet she was more of a mother to him as she had practically raised him on her own after their mother's death. Tears welled up in his eyes as she spoke again.

"But Nico," She began, "I never truly left you, I've always been right here." She finished poking him in the chest lightly. Bianca began to whisper things in his ear, things she had seen during his adventures with Percy and company, things that only she would know about him, things that not even she was supposed to know. She had seen it all. The tears were falling unabated by his strength in character now, he let his weakness be known, for Bianca was the only one who would ever truly understand him.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through so much without me." She said before placing a kiss on his temple. He felt her breath upon his ear again but there was a rasp to it that hadn't been there before. " **But now we can** **suffer together for eternity.** "

There was a sharp pain that erupted from the center of his chest.

He felt like all the warmth in his body had been doused with ice cold water. He couldn't move anymore. No matter how he tried none of his limbs would respond to him. Nico felt those arms wrap themselves even tighter now. Slithering across his torso and constricting like a Python. They were thin, so very thin yet full of strength. He looked down at them and noted how the hands and fingers were long and gnarled. He didn't know who this was behind him but it was definitely _not_ his sister.

He tried again to wriggle out of this mystery person's clutches but to no avail, he had been sapped of any and all strength he ever had. " **I am misery.** **I am Poison. I am Akhlys, child, and I will claim your soul.** " She said, sounding so sorrowful but happy at the same time. Her demented cackle sounded right next to his ear. " **Look up.** " The woman said simply, but the delight in her tone was poorly hidden.

His head snapped up to see that David was standing in front of him. They were so close their noses were practically touching and his unnaturally wide grin and blood-spattered face. He looked back down to his torso and saw that the skeletal arms from before were no longer there, instead, there was a lone hand poking him in the sternum in the shape of a gun. It was attached to David's good arm.

David's fingertip had already eaten through Nico's shirt and had turned the skin in the affected area purple. The simple touch ignited a pain in Nico that he had never felt before. It was small and sharp yet it encompassed his whole being and set his insides ablaze.

Nico looked back up into David's eyes and found nothing but a sick happiness and hatred all wrapped into one powerful gaze. Nico saw David's chapped lips move. They twisted and contorted to form a single word that was spoken in nothing more than a whisper, but the power behind it spoke volumes.

"Bang."

He didn't scream.

Not even as the poison slug tore through his thoracic cavity and out of the top half of his spinal column, completely eviscerating anything in its way. It lit everything in his body on fire as it tried to reject the poison that was currently seeping through his mangled veins.

Then the pain disappeared, his entire being was numb now and he was tired. So very tired.

His body fell from its normally straight-backed stature. Crumpled to the ground as if he were nothing more than a ragdoll.

His eyes had dulled from their deep black to simply becoming almost opaque.

He couldn't see anything anymore, just a never-ending darkness. He felt himself sinking and knew he should try to swim but he couldn't. He was so tired. Maybe he should let go and rest a while.

Down, down, down he went… falling deeper into his internal abyss.

A short nap wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

* * *

Damien and Cyrus arrived just as David began to walk away from the macabre scene. The adrenaline induced high from his fight had worn off and now he felt an extreme pain from the loss of one of his arms and a Stygian iron sword being lodged deep in his clavicle.

"What... what the hell happened here!?" Damien all but shouted at David, demanding a response.

Cyrus' jaw clenched as he eyed the beaten and broken body laying not 30 feet from them. His eyes searched the area and noted that the formerly heavily forested area was littered with broken trees and dead grass. There were blood and poison both spattered on the ground.

"I got into it with that guy over there," David stated casually, jabbing a thumb behind him in the direction of the fresh corpse as if there was no issue to be had. "It's fine now though, I took out the trash already."

Damien shot David a look of utter disgust. "Took out the trash? You killed him!" He yelled. Damien had always been a firm believer in the importance of life and the meaning it held. He would never be okay with the meaningless slaughter of other people.

"Yes, I did." David drawled, locking eyes with Damien. A cruel smirk spread across his face, "And I enjoyed it." A chill ran up Damien's spine but he held defiantly eye contact with David.

"You bastard… you're fucking sick." Damien was shaking in anger at this point yet David was watching him impassively, not really caring much about this whole outburst.

David began to walk again, rudely bumping shoulders with Damien as he passed. A demented cackle bounded from between his parted lips as he smiled brightly. "Oh, trust me, boy, I know."

After a couple more steps, he stopped walking and turned around to look Damien in his eyes. "Understand this, you're about to enter a completely different world than you've ever known. That silver spoon that you've grown up eating off of, means jack shit here," He spat " The weak will not survive here. They become food for the strong in order to help the ones like _me_ thrive! That is the way the world truly works _child_. And you'd be wise to understand that quickly before you end up dog food like the rest of the fodder." David gave Damien the most acidic glare he'd ever received in his short life in that moment before turning on his heel and exiting the area.

After David left, Cyrus walked over to the body and knelt beside it. This hadn't been the first cadaver he's ever laid eyes on and knowing with the way things were currently going, it wouldn't be the last. His dull eyes were staring straight towards the sky. Almost as if he was waiting for something that would never come. There were dark veins running throughout his pale skin; presumably a result of the amount of poison he came in contact with. Cyrus decided to at least show some respect to the kid he closed the boy's eyes.

Reaching down into his pockets he started to rifle through the boy's belongings to find his wallet. Finding what he was looking for, he pulled out the wallet and opened it in search of the ID.

"Found you." He sighed to himself as he read the name on it.

 _Nico di Angelo, 16 years of age._

Bowing his head in a silent prayer for him, he stood and looked at Damien. Damien stared at the body with an intensity that was positively tempestuous. So many conflicted emotions swirled behind those cerulean orbs. His tense body language told Cyrus everything he needed to know about how his companion felt about what had transpired.

"Damien." Cyrus had spoken for the first time since arriving. Damien's eyes slid over to him slowly as if they were trying to take in every last detail of the murder scene. "Let's get out of here." He tried to smile to ease his surrogate brother's frustrations but his lips didn't lift an inch from their tight line. He'd never get used to this.

Damien looked at Cyrus incredulously, "What, you mean to just leave him there?"

"No." Cyrus sent a solemn look Damien's way before looking back towards the mangled corpse. "I've heard stories about this kid, he's Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."

The shock was clear on Damien's face as he realized that this kid was a child of one of the strongest gods from the Greek pantheon. Things started to click into place for Damien as he spoke, "So that means his father will be coming to retrieve him soon."

"Exactly, which means we better be long gone before he does or we'll suffer a fate far worse than just a simple death." Cyrus nodded, affirming the thought.

And with that Cyrus started to walk back home, forsaking school in the process. Damien was conflicted between staying and trying to explain to Hades what happened and leaving the god's son where he lay to save his own hide. Thinking about it twice, however, he realized that it would be damn near impossible to reason with a grieving god who would be blindly lashing out at any unknown factors.

So, he left with Cyrus, picking up the tempo in his stride so he could catch up to his friend.

They left Nico's broken body lying there, cold and alone. Unbeknownst to them, however, a pool of darkness spread across the ground under Nico, before sucking him in whole. Hades had retrieved his son before Akhlys could have her way with him.

And he was pissed.

Next: _The Tempest_


	3. Jägerbomb

**AN: So, here we are, back for round three. It has been a little while since the last chapter, but I think it is fine seeing as how I am dropping a new one. Regardless, I think I need to expand on the depth of my characters and flesh out their personalities. Oh yeah, this is** _ **technically**_ **my first real Fanfic (the last one does not count lol) so any comments or feedback would be appreciated. :) Well, all right, enough of my ramblings now. Let us get into this.**

* * *

The Silver Lining

 _Jägerbomb_

 _October 21_ _st_ _, 2008_

" _Percy honey, I'll be right back okay?" Mom rubbed the side of my face affectionately._

" _Okay, mom," I grumbled stubbornly, not at all happy about what she was being asked to do. I watched mom leave my room and enter the kitchen. She was currently on her way to make a meal for that swine Smelly Gabe. Honestly, I could never understand why she put up with his shit. He was dirty, fat, smelly, and abusive. I wanted him to disappear. I never lashed out at him however because my mom had told me that she would be angry if I did. That was the last thing I wanted, my mom is my world and I just want her to be happy._

 _A short while after my mom left, there was a crash that came from the living room. I ran out into the hallway immediately not caring that I was only wearing my pajamas. I saw her then, sprawled across the floor with Smelly Gabe standing over her, his open palm was poised to strike. My mom's cheek was an angry shade of red and the broken plate of food laid there._

" _You dumb bitch!" Gabe shouted angrily, his venomous words twisting their way out of his mouth, pointing towards his now ruined shirt. "Ya fuggin spilled the beer and ma fuggin food all over ma goddamn shirt Sally!"_

 _She parted her lips to give a word of apology but was silenced by another slap across her face. This one came with twice the force and split the skin on her lip. Her hair was in disarray and covered her eyes as she wept silently._

 _At that moment, I felt something inside me break, almost like glass. I knew what I had to do if I wanted this to stop. My mom deserved so much better and I was going to make sure that a hand was never raised against her again. I spoke out, my voice barbed with thorns, "Hey, you greased up walking slab of pork, you smell like corn chips and death and so does your dad!" He was set to strike my mother again but stopped in his tracks, looking me dead in the eye. The rolls under his chin shooting back and forth like the pump of a shotgun. I would've laughed had this not been the current situation._

 _I got my desired reaction._

 _He came sprinting at me like a bat out of hell, completely disregarding the fact that he was about 5'10" and weighed well over 300 pounds. I wasn't going to_ run _, however. I stood still, glaring defiantly as he snatched me off the floor by my hair. I heard my mom scream distantly and even though my current pain drowned out her words I knew what she was saying._

 _He dragged me off to the kitchen._

 _She was begging him not to hurt me. But I knew he wouldn't listen. I knew that now that he had a new target to vent his frustrations on he wouldn't hit my mom again._

 _He grabbed a knife out a drawer._

 _I tried. I tried to be a man. Something more than just a skinny eight-year-old with ADD and ADHD, so I could be my mom's backbone as she was mine. The other kids in school told me that real men don't cry. They don't… they don't scream. Well, I guess I was more of a child than I thought._

 _The blade passed through the skin of my arm without resistance, and I screamed and cried for my mother._

 _My mom was behind Gabe now, hitting him in the back to get him to stop. He wouldn't however and we all knew it, not until I knew to never cross him again._

 _The knife raised again._

* * *

 _Time and place: Unknown_

 _BEEP_

Sea green eyes snapped open.

"Wh–where the hell am I?" He croaked out, his body felt like lead and he could barely speak. The room he was in was completely white, like a hospital. Machines that monitored his pulse and things of the sort were surrounding him. There was a curtain off to his left though, seemingly hiding another patient behind it. He heard nothing in response. All he could hear in the quiet room was that-

 _BEEP_

"Hello…?" he tried again but no one answered him once again. He tried to sit up but his body wouldn't follow orders. It reacted violently to being forced out of its prone state and Percy's body locked up. He laid there stiff and unable to move. It was if he was paralyzed from the neck down.

 _Shuffle…_

 _BEEP_

It was a small sound. Barely loud enough to be noticeable but he heard it. That shuffle. It set his senses on fire and everything about his current situation seemed wrong to him. He could tell now that there wasn't supposed to be anyone else in the room with him… but there was. He could feel it in his bones. There was someone in here with him and there was nothing he could do to defend himself. Fear's cold hands gripped him as he laid stock still on the hospital bed.

 _BEEP_

He felt like a deer in headlights. He could feel his body shaking but he still couldn't move. What was this… this oppressive feeling that he was experiencing right now? He could hear footsteps now, long and drawn out as if to purposefully alert him of the other inhabitant's presence. He just needed his body to give an inch, a centimeter, a twitch, _ANYTHING_!

" _JUST MOVE DAMNIT!_ " He shouted internally, his own voice reverberated through his skull as the footsteps stopped at the foot of his bed.

He screwed his eyes shut, not wanting to look at whoever it was. He knew he wasn't supposed to for some reason. It was a strong feeling that told him eye contact with this person would mean his end.

The person's deep voice chuckled and all of the whirring gears in Percy's head stopped. Every sound that was going through the room was drowned out by the chuckle and it felt as if time had slowed to a halt.

" _I've got a feeling that this person is a not a human,"_ Percy noted to himself, trying to gather as much information without the use of his eyes as humanly possible.

"So, you're that Perseus kid, huh?" The masculine voice mused to itself.

"Well, I guess it depends on who's asking, now, doesn't it?" Percy bit out, not at all happy with his current situation.

"Hm… I suppose it does."

Percy was already done with this conversation "Well, seeing as how I answered your question, can you do me a small favor and find your way to the exit, please? I would help you out, but I'm a little preoccupied at the moment." He smiled politely and kept his eyes closed, but the vicious undertone oozed from between his lips and it didn't go unnoticed.

A booming laugh sounded out in the hospital room. "Look at the balls on you kid!" the laughing continued as if the man genuinely found him amusing. "Talking like you're the head honcho around these parts."

One of Percy's eyes was roughly forced open by rough fingers. Sea green met a set of blood red orbs that practically screamed insanity and malicious intent.

"But, I think I'm gonna have to educate you on why I run shit here, yeah?"

* * *

 _December 16_ _th_ _, 2017_

Artemis shot up from her prone state in her bed, now sitting upright, her ragged breathing forcing her chest to heave erratically. Her hand flew to her abdomen, feeling for the wound that very nearly ended her life. However, to her surprise, it was no longer there.

"What on earth… I could have sworn that I was..." She muttered to no one in particular, she left the end of the sentence hanging because she did not want to revisit what happened during her embarrassing defeat by Aether.

"Almost killed by a protogenos who was supposed to have faded millennia ago? Yes, that did happen."

Artemis turned her gaze towards the person she hadn't noticed sitting next to her bed, in her initial confusion.

"Aunt Hestia," She acknowledged her presence.

Hestia's warm smile made Artemis feel more at ease with her situation. She was clearly content with seeing her niece awake and well. "How are you?" Hestia asked gently.

"I am… alright, I just feel weak." Artemis was baffled, she could feel virtually no connection to her powers at all.

Hestia was quite concerned but she hid it well, so as to not startle Artemis. " _Something is not right with her._ " She thought to herself as she studied the auburn-haired goddess.

"I suppose you owe a certain few men your thanks." She said teasingly.

"I refuse." Artemis fired back almost instantly, much too prideful to admit that she in fact needed the help of a man.

"Oh?" Hestia's smile fell from her face, "and why would you not thank them?"

Artemis clicked her tongue and looked away from Hestia, eyes landing on the white curtain that split the room up into halves, "Because, had that _boy_ not appeared I would not have lost focus or have been defeated by Aether."

Hestia, noting that her issue was with Percy and not Apollo, moved to stand before her niece and leveled her powerful gaze with Artemis' own. "Do not act like a child Artemis, they saved your life… and one of them did so at the quite possible expense of his own". She spoke solemnly.

Artemis was confused for a second as she could clearly tell that she the infirmary that she was in was a part of Apollo's palace. That means he somehow found her and brought her here to nurse her back to health. So, that could only mean…

"Where's Perseus?"

"Ah, I thought you would never ask." Hestia sighed, preparing herself mentally to gaze upon her nephew again.

She moved to slide the curtains back and they gazed upon Perseus together. He lay there in only his boxers and comatose in a large tank that was laid flat against the wall. The tank was filled with a green fluid with a golden-blue tinge that made his body float in a suspended state. She observed him thoroughly, momentarily excusing his nudity. He wore an oxygen mask that covered his entire face (to force him to breathe), and it was clear to see that his body was littered with wounds, to the point that she could tell that there was worse damage beneath the skin.

" _Nectar and water, huh?_ " Artemis mused to herself, as she observed through narrowed eyes.

"Cracked skull in both front and back, broken nose, dislocated jaw, severe concussion, his ribs were practically ground to mulch." Hestia read off the injury report that Apollo had left on the end table next to Percy's tank. "I am surprised he is still among the living after experiencing the trauma he did."

"Yes, but Perseus Jackson has a knack for making the impossible a reality," Artemis said softly, wondering why he, a man, would go through so much just to ensure that she lived. Because she knew that had the tables been turned she wouldn't have done the same.

Hestia continued to gaze upon Percy before she turned her gaze towards Artemis and scrutinized her once again. Artemis' unblemished face was scrunched in confusion as if was pondering Percy's intentions behind coming to her aid. Her niece seemed practically normal but she could no longer sense Artemis' celestial energy. Not even a hint of it. She seemed frail… weak… not unlike a–. Artemis' eyes met her own with a quizzical look as she seemingly tried to figure out what Hestia wanted from her.

"Artemis."

"Yes?"

"May I see your hand?"

Normally, Artemis wouldn't have hesitated to comply with Hestia's request but her aunt's serious expression told her that something was horribly wrong. After a moment's pause, she held out her hand for Hestia to examine. Hestia looked at it for a long second, apparently finding what she was looking for. Her face contorted into a rare expression of anger that set the fire in her eyes ablaze. Artemis was taken aback by Hestia's display of negative emotions, surprise colored her face. Hestia snatched a dagger from her side and swiped it across Artemis' hand before she could react.

A stinging pain flared up in her hand as she snatched back from her aunt and held it close to her chest, she was completely shell-shocked. Something was terribly wrong. Her aunt had never hurt a fly before this, so why now? What had unsettled Hestia to the point of lashing out at her?

 _Drip._

Artemis could feel the warm and thick liquid running down the side of her hand at its own leisurely pace. She watched as Hestia stared at her hand as if it had sprouted another set of fingers.

Her own fear was palpable now as she didn't want to look down but knew she had to. She could _feel_ the need to. Her eyes drifted downward slowly, she did not know why but knew that she wouldn't like what she found.

Those silver orbs landed on the liquid running from her closed hand.

 _Drip_.

It, however, was not golden and neither was it ichor.

It was _red_. It was blood. The telltale sign of mortality. She was _human._

Artemis' resounding scream shook the foundations of Apollo's palace.

* * *

Aether whistled a jaunty tune as he walked through the streets of Richmond, Virginia. He wasn't extremely pleased with what had transpired because he did not actually get to fully complete his mission and kill Artemis. But he was fine with settling for pulverizing an insolent demigod and embarrassing his father.

Turning a corner, he passed through an alleyway between two large brick buildings and came to another sidewalk. There was a hop in his step that seemed a little odd to the passersby that were around him on that same sidewalk. The gloomy weather further accentuated that fact. The rain was coming down in droves, the skies were blanketed with an ashen gray Aether, however, could apparently give a rat's ass about what the weather was like.

A woman of about twenty-five walked past him and he called out to get her attention. She turned back and he immediately threw a wink that had her swooning. " _Heh, I still got it_." He grinned to himself as he turned to continue his walk.

After twenty more minutes of leisurely strolling through town, he stepped onto the lawn of the Virginia State Capitol. It was a large Grecian style building that sported Greek columns in the front to support itself. Other wings of the building spread out from the main part giving it that southern flair. Aether never necessarily liked how low this building was to the earth but appreciated the structure of it nonetheless.

Aether jogged up the steep sets of stairs and through the large doors, figuring he was late enough, might as well pick up the pace a tad bit. " _He's going to be so pissed",_ He thought as he chuckled to himself.

His trench coat that was draped over the top of his black suit billowed out behind him as his pace carried him swiftly across the vast marble floors of the lobby into the large doors that led to the conference room. Throwing them open with a dramatic flair he strode through them and came out on the other side in the middle of a throne room twice the size of Olympus and twice as spectacular. The sun and moon seemed permanently burned into the roof that was constantly changing between the day and night without changing the brightness in the room.

The only peculiar thing about this throne room was that it was devoid of thrones themselves. Instead, there were portals that lead into different realities shrouded in each god's domain. There was, however, a long table in the middle of the room that looked like it was for eating as well as meetings. Golden chalices and plates, that had a magically never-ending supply of the best foods upon them, lined the table and awesome chairs were in each god's spot that seemed to have been created from their domains.

Aether scanned his eyes across the two that were already sitting in the room, before sliding his eyes across the empty seats. The two sitting in the room, presumably in the midst of a heated conversation due to their rigid facial expressions, were Pontos the Protogenos of the Sea and Hemera the Protogenos of Day.

The protogenoi that were missing were Tartarus the Protogenos of the Pit, Nyx the Protogenos of Night, Erebus the Protogenos of Darkness, Akhlys the Protogenos of Misery and Poison. Servants came bustling in from many directions, attending to the needs of all the seated gods as they prepared their meal. A large smile broke across Aether's face as he announced his presence, regardless of the fact that they had seen him come in.

"HONEY", he yelled enthusiastically "I'M HOME!"

His childish entrance was met with silence.

Pontus' deep ocean blue eyes locked onto his, facial expression the likeness of stone. His short crew cut fade was darker than the depths of the sea itself. His face was completely void of any hair whatsoever. Pontus' rectangular face was defined by his slightly pointed chin and strong jawline. His dark eyes were small and spaced evenly apart, sitting below trimmed eyebrows that seemed to curve as a natural extension of his broad, rounded nose. He kept his mouth closed in a thin, straight line. The black fatigue jacket he wore over his sturdy shoulders was without a single crease, showing that he liked things to be orderly and uniformed. He sat up straight, his face held forward in a steady gaze, and had an air of authority that was palpable.

"Aether," he said simply. But the poorly hidden aggression behind the name contradicted the flat tone of his voice.

"Oh, Pontus."

"Did you accomplish what you set out to-" Pontus began but was cut off by a rambling Aether.

"Listen, I had soooo much fun with the Olympians…" Pontus' stone-faced expression never wavered as he watched and listened to Aether's tirade. It honestly irritated him how his cousin could never take anything seriously until he was angered.

"Aether did you-" Pontus tried to speak again but was met with the same result.

"Did you know that if you close your eyes while you eat it, chocolate cake can taste like…"

"Aether… silence!" Pontus' voice boomed across the throne room, powerful eyes swirling with barely contained rage at his nephew's antics.

Aether acquiesced to the order and responded only with a petulant frown. This gesture placated Pontus, yet only slightly. "All right, fine." He sighed "What is it exactly that you want to hear, cousin?"

Pontus directed an authoritative glare towards Aether who shrugged it off nonchalantly. "I want to know what happened with the Olympians." He responded simply.

"Ah! Right." A lightbulb lit up Aether's previously bored expression as he pounded his fist. "They were absolutely puny things." A sick smile crept across his face.

"I found that Moon Goddess you wanted dead and beat her to within an inch of her life," he chuckled to himself finding that particularly funny.

"And then?"

"Oh yes, one of their annoying little flies buzzed around my ears so I had to swat him." He clenched his jaw at that, remembering distinctly how Percy actually caused him pain.

Pontus noticed that and pressed further. "Care to elaborate nephew?"

Aether looked as if he did not want to say it for a second, but then he came out with it. "That _fly_ actually bit me before I swatted him…"

That garnered a giggle from the other god in the room. Hemera, her stunning features catching Aether's full attention, spoke up from her seat. "So, a demigod pressured you, hmmm?" Her melodious laughter traveling across the room.

Aether was busy eyeing her up and down, drinking in every detail. Her golden eyes, magnified by a bright aura surrounding her. Long and straight golden tresses falling just past her shoulders. Fair skin magnifying the color of her hair and eyes. Her high cheekbones just screamed she was of royal descent. She was a shorter woman but still commanded a level of attention and respect that Aether decided was positively delicious. The blue and gold robes amplified her stunning figure by hugging every curve she had.

"Hemera, please," He laughed it off, "Some flies do bite, you know?"

"Yes, and they are also attracted to garbage," She intended to get under his skin, being one of the very few people who could do so. Another fit of bubbly laughter came from her.

Aether gaped at her, "How could you say that?" sniffling a bit, he wiped at his eyes as if he were crying, "You're so horrible."

Pontus had seen fit to cut through their banter at that, "Aether, continue your story."

"Ah, yes, as I was saying…" Aether went on to recount the details of his battle with Perseus. Every detail, big or small, rolled off his tongue with ease.

Pontus leveled a harsh glare at Aether. "Aether… I sent you out there to kill the Moon Goddess and you return to me with grandiose tales of your battle with a _demigod_?"

"…Well if you put it that way then I guess," He shrugged in response, not really caring how it made Pontus feel. "If it makes you feel any better," he added, "I took her immortality from her by fracturing her Celestial Center. She'll be hard-pressed to even simply survive after this."

Pontus listened intently to Aether as he relayed this piece of information. "How will you ensure that she does not live?" He hissed, "You know how important her death is to our future."

"Yes, yes, I know." Aether dismissed the aggression flippantly, "That's why I gave the task of killing her and her pet demigod to your son."

Leaning forward in his seat, Pontus harshly slammed his fist down on the table, "Aether!" He yelled furiously, "You would entrust the fate of our entire pantheon to a mere half-blood?"

"I would," He responded simply, shrugging once again.

"He is just a damn boy! He has not even taken up his first quest yet and you intend to lay the weight of our fates upon his shoulders?" Pontus asked incredulously, "You know full well that if the Moon Goddess is not killed then we cannot take our rightful place as the rulers of this world without heavy casualties! She holds her father's heart in her palm, without her death we cannot bring him low enough to make him an easy target."

Aether's eyes narrowed at that. He eyed Pontus dangerously for a moment, seriously considering leaping across the table and blacking his uncle's eye. "I assure you, he's been battle tested by me personally, he'll do fine."

"I agree, Pontus, he is more than capable of completing such a task," Hemera interjected smoothly, noting how tense Aether had become, "I have borne witness to his strength myself."

Pontus wanted to say more but he settled for the fact that both Aether and Hemera had faith in the boy. "So, where's this child prodigy of yours?"

Aether relaxed after that and responded in kind, "Oh, he's about to meet the rest of his team."

* * *

Damien sneezed, before scratching his nose. " _Was someone talking about me?_ " He wondered curiously before shaking away the superstitious thought. They were in the living room of their room whilst Damien's mother was at work. This was a common occurrence, to be exact. She did not know the meaning of rest and worked herself to the bone in order to provide for Damien and Cyrus. It is not like his father just refused to keep in contact with him, however, in fact, that is not the case at all. She just flat out refused to take any of his money because of the way things ended between them. His mother was also a very proud woman, refusing to take any handouts and would much rather get what she wants or needs by herself.

Cyrus read a book while he waited for Damien to stop jittering. The guy was a livewire at the moment and mixing that with ADHD was never a good thing. Damien got up and started pacing behind the couch that Cyrus was lounging on.

Cyrus reluctantly lifted his eyes away from his book and gave Damien a quizzical look. "Any particular reason as to why you're so nervous right now?"

"Because, I don't know who these people are, yet they're supposed to entrust me with their lives and I'm supposed to lead them!" Damien ran his hands through his hair as he paced back and forth, "Don't you see where my issue with this is?

"Yes," Cyrus agreed whilst flipping another page in his book, "I understand because these people are going to look to you for guidance and as a source of hope If everything else seems lost. You are scared. You are scared because the entire future of our pantheon is resting upon your shoulders. I get that yet giving in to the fear of failure will always prohibit you from succeeding. You cannot lose yourself in your insecurities or this mission will be over before it begins. You must be strong and take hold of that bravery that we both know you hold deep down inside yourself."

Damien was at a loss for words, due to Cyrus' wisdom but took his words to heart. He knew what he had to do in order to be a strong leader, even if he was unsure of himself. In truth, his doubt was justified because no one has ever entrusted their lives to him before, especially not on this scale. He took a calming sigh and sat down in a chair next to the TV. Cyrus watched him for a couple of moments and then proceed to continue reading his book as if the conversation never happened.

Thirty minutes passed by with them relaxing in the living room waiting for his squadron to come. He did not know what it was like to lead people, but he supposed he would have to be a quick learner. Damien's ears perked up as he heard a car pull up across the street. Listening closer, he quickly realized that the rumble he was hearing was the engine of a truck. Four doors slammed yet eight pairs of feet landed on the ground roughly as if they jumped down from the truck. He sat and listened while they walked towards his home and up his front lawn.

 _Knock. Knock. Knock._

Cyrus finally looked up from his book and yawned, "It's about time, I thought they wouldn't show up until nightfall."

"Yeah, I was starting to think the same thing, honestly," Damien agreed, before getting up to get the door.

Damien opened the door to see five people around his age and two others, who looked to be twins, looked way too much older to be the same age. " _Wait… I heard_ eight _people_ _get out of the car. There's only seven here_ ," Damien thought this to himself suspiciously, a tingle crawled up the back of his neck.

He openly smiled at them, intending to allow them to think that he had been caught unawares, before whipping around and throwing a punch directly past the jaw of a kid of modest height. His low-cut ink black hair was shaped into a military fade. He had a slim and athletic build that made him think of a track star turned parkour master. His dark skin showed he was of African-American descent. Otherwise, he could not see anything else of his face from the nose down, all that was visible was a black mask that connected to his equally dark tactical suit. He could tell, however, that he was smiling at him if the crinkles in his eyes were anything to go by.

The teenager chuckled before extending a hand, "Sorry about the tense introduction, just had to make sure our new leader was as good as we were told; the name's Gregory Black, but you can call me Greg."

Damien smiled back, pleased to have already passed their test, "Nice to meet you, Greg, I'm Damien Grayson." After that, he let them all in and assumed his place in the chair across from the couch Cyrus was still lounging on. Greg was leaning against the wall by the window, watching the cars go by. The others either stood around or found another chair to sit in themselves. After everyone was situated, Damien clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "All right. Introduction time, should I go first?"

"No, we've already read your file, so one of us should go," One of the twins grunted, the man stood at a frightening 6'6" and looked down at everyone in the room. He had a light beard that covered his strong jawline and a neat fade with dark hair on the top that was tied back into a man-bun. He wore a manila button up shirt with some blue jeans and Chelsea boots. The man had a straight nose with dark eyebrows that seemed to always be set in a scowl. Horn-rimmed glasses covered his obsidian eyes. The man spoke again, "I guess I'll go first. My name is Kevin Cox, I am 25 years old, I am a son of Tartarus and I graduated from Penn State University.

The other twin spoke up next, His shaggy black hair reaching just past the tips of his pointed ears. His lips parted to reveal jagged teeth, and the smooth voice that came from them projected his arrogance clearly. Damien could already tell that getting along with this guy would be a struggle. A black hoodie and jeans covered the man's muscular form. "I'm Jackson Cox. I am 25 years old, the other son of Tartarus, and the greatest hunter that this world has ever seen." His facial features were identical to his brother's with the same light beard that covered his strong jawline. This man had a straight nose with dark eyebrows that seemed to always be set in a perpetual sneer. His obsidian eyes glinted with a hidden yet primal anger that was mainly seen in predatory animals. He did not, however, wear glasses for he did not need them, his supernatural eyes were immaculate.

Damien eyed him closely as if sizing him up before sliding his eyes to the next person. She was a shorter girl that looked as if she had run track or had been a gymnast prior to being recruited by his uncle. Her slim figure had the slight tone to it that gave her away. Her midnight blue eyes held a certain glow to them as her dark hair cascaded about her shoulders in a wildly curly ponytail. She radiated a confidence that had clearly been kept from being twisted into arrogance. She knew what she was capable of and did not seem too shy to prove that. Her slightly upturned nose was followed by her naturally full lips. Her athletic figure and callouses that ran along her fingers told him of a history in archery. " _That's where her tone comes from._ " He concluded to himself.

"I'm Nyssa Rupp, daughter of Erebus, I'm 19 years old and I _was_ attending NYU before being recruited for this." There was a slight bitterness in her tone, but she held mirth in her eyes as she locked eyes with Damien, not at all oblivious to the fact that his eyes had been lingering on her.

Damien looked away as he noticed that she had known he was eyeing her. He coughed into his hand lightly which prompted Cyrus, who had watched the silent exchange, to chuckle before putting down his book and speaking up. "Alright, the name's Cyrus McTavish," he drawled with a lighter accent of a resident of New York, "I'm 19, a son of Aether, and I don't have anything in particular that I want you to know about me."

Grey eyes grazed his form as he spoke, yet Cyrus did not care. He leaned back in his spot on the couch and closed his eyes as he waited for the next person to speak up. Silence carried across the room as everyone sweat-dropped at his lackluster introduction. "Alright… who's next?", Damien offered shortly after.

The only other girl in the room raised her hand, whilst keeping her eyes locked on Cyrus. Her long white hair fell to the small of her back and held a stark contrast to her black leather jacket and black denim jeans with just as equally black steel toe boots. Her ashen eyes moved from Cyrus' prone figure to swipe across Damien's face before she spoke, "I might as well," She sounded as bored as Cyrus did, "My name is Jessie Drake, I'm 17, and a daughter of _Nyx_ and a 1st gen legacy of Erebus." Her Grecian nose wrinkled slightly as she named her mother. Her naturally pink pouty lips curled in poorly hidden disgust. Obviously, the girl had some mommy issues. A faded yet jagged scar ran up the side of her neck, adding to her badass look. She looked like she was lithe at first glance but upon looking closer, Damien knew that there had to be more to her build that could be seen now. The reason being is because she had a Katana shaped blade resting it its gorgeous sheath, that was strapped to her back.

Immediately after that, a bright light flashed upstairs and some glass broke. Everyone shot to their feet, yet Damien was the first one to draw his weapon. Footsteps moved swiftly down the stairs until he could see a beige trench coat and then a familiar face. Aether came to the bottom of the stairs before he ever turned to face the rest of the room. When he finally looked, he noticed that there was a weapon pointed his way that was almost of unsettling as the tense glares that were being sent his way. "Oh, sorry, am I interrupting something here?" He said finally, sounding as innocent as possible.

Damien let go of a sigh of relief as he plopped back into his seat. He let his recently manifested sword drop into his lap carelessly, as it could not cut him. The sword was a beauty, to say the least, it was a four-foot long blade made of adamantine that held a white color towards the hilt, yet it bled to a deep-sea blue after that and through the rest of the blade. It had been bestowed upon him by Aether when he was a boy. The enchanted sword, Savior [σωτήρ], could be summoned from a pocket dimension, that was connected to Aether's domain, with the snap of his fingers.

"No, Aether, you're actually right on time." Damien chuckled, as he dispelled Savior with another snap of his fingers.

Everyone in the room, except Cyrus and Aether, had wide eyes as they realized that Damien had addressed a Protogenoi by his first name. Such a thing was taboo and that was widely known across their pantheon and even all others. For him to speak to an all-powerful being as if they were equals, he must have had a death wish. These worrisome thoughts were dispelled immediately, however, as Aether chuckled himself and walked over to clap Damien on the shoulder. "I see you've met your team, cousin," Aether began, "Well… most of them."

Damien eyed Aether suspiciously, "Wait, what do you mean by 'most of them'? I thought we had everyone assembled as planned."

At this, Nyssa spoke up from her place on the couch, "Yes, but uh, that David guy is a little too hard to handle."

The name struck a chord within Damien as he gripped the chair harshly. He remembered vividly how he had brutalized a young man with. Cyrus rose from his prone position, before asking incredulously, "Why even recruit him if he's batshit crazy?"

"Because of his strength, the man easily outclasses everyone in this room in terms of raw strength apart from you, Damien, and myself," Aether responded seriously, his eyes narrowed in a silent challenge for Cyrus to contest his authority.

Kevin adjusted his glasses before speaking, "Milord, if I may, I think that David is too much of a liability to rely on,"

"Yes, it may seem that way, but you will need his power if you are to succeed in your mission."

Jackson looked out the window, seemingly uninterested in the direction the conversation was heading. Damien thought heavily about the last time he had seen David, the cruel smile that was plastered upon his face. He had enjoyed killing that kid, that much David was sure about. All that bullshit about the weak versus the strong and what not. It meant nothing because David's true reasoning behind killing that Nico guy was simplistic in itself; He wanted to.

Damien looked up from his musings to find his comrades' debate coming to a close. He looked to Kevin who was watching Aether intently, his calculative eyes trying to assess the amount of strength that he possessed. "Milord…" He spoke up as the previous conversation died down, "Who is the Olympians' strongest warrior?"

"Hmm, God or Demigod?" Aether inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Either one is fine."

"Well, I assume you already know about Zeus, the King of the Gods, soon to be dethroned, however," Aether began, "and… the most powerful Demigod they have goes by the name of Perseus Jackson." He finished contemptuously, being reminded of the fact that the first injury he had received in a millennium had been delivered by a Demigod. He looked at Damien however, knowing exactly how he would react to this news.

At the mention of the second name Damien's eyes widened, "Are you serious?" Aether only chuckled in response. Damien stood up quickly, starting everyone else in the room. His movements were a blur as he shot forward towards Aether only to be restrained by Cyrus, who had moved just as quickly and succeeded in locking Damien in a full nelson. "Are you fucking kidding me!?"

"Calm the hell down, Damien!" Cyrus yelled at Damien, trying to get through to him, "Remember exactly who it is that you're trying to attack right now, getting yourself killed won't help anyone."

"YOU TOLD ME THAT HE WAS DEAD!" Damien ignored Cyrus in favor of his fury with Aether that clouded his better judgment, "All of these years, you let me believe that my friend had died because of me! How could you!?"

Aether held his hands up to show he meant no harm, "Well, I see now that it might not have been the best course of action…" he started in an attempt to appease the angry Demigod, "If it makes you feel better, though, it was for your own good."

Damien stopped wriggling under Cyrus' grip, "What do you mean?" He was confused, how would telling a ten-year-old something so traumatizing, be a good thing for them?

"It helped you separate yourself from that boy before you faced each other on the battlefield," Aether said wisely, showing his age through his words, "Because we _will_ fight them… and you _will_ kill him."

Damien just stared at Aether after he said that, not really understanding that he was just told he would have to kill his former friend. Aether continued to speak, knowing how to get through to Damien, "Your father has decreed it so," He eyed Damien as he watched the thoughts race through his head, trying to process this information. "You will relinquish any former attachments to that boy and eliminate him if you wish for our pantheon to survive this war."

"I see…" Damien trailed off, not being able to find the words to continue speaking, " _Even father was in on this, so maybe it was necessary_." He thought to himself.

"That, however, is a task that only you can complete," Aether began again, knowing that Damien had taken the bait, "The true objective for all of you… is the death of Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt."

Everyone in the room looked surprised about that. They did not realize that they would be ordered to take out a god of all things. Why would the Protogenoi entrust them with a task such as this, when they were a generally unproven ragtag team of warriors? It did not make any sense.

"Don't worry though, I handicapped her for you. She's not the powerhouse that she used to be."

Jackson's ears perked up at the news and he tuned into the conversation. "So… that means she is to be hunted down and killed?"

Knowing how to get Jackson's full interest and cooperation in this mission he obliged the man's question, "Essentially, yes. I took her celestial powers away and in doing so, effectively reduced to her strength life force to that of an average demigod's."

"This means that she is no longer immortal…" Kevin said quietly as he grinned to himself, "How lovely."

Chills went up the back of Greg's neck as he observed Kevin's evil expression silently. " _Jeez, that dude is one scary mofo_ ," he thought warily, not wanting to fathom what goes through that man's obviously sinister mind.

Damien clenched his fists tightly as he mulled over the ramifications of killing his friend and a god. He doubted he would ever be the same again, but duty called his name and he was supposed to answer. If he didn't, his entire pantheon would be destroyed and he'd selfishly be leaving his mother in danger. To forever live in fear of the Olympian Gods that may just end her for the fun of it. Cyrus would also be killed along with himself. Inaction would only lead to everyone's demise and that was just simply unacceptable. He could not let everyone perish in order to spare the lives of the enemy. His father was right, it would be hard, but he would see it through because it was the right thing to do.

"I'll do it," Damien spoke up whilst sighing heavily, dragging a hand across his face as his conflicted mind came to the conclusion that he was searching for.

Aether grinned inwardly, knowing full well that Damien's scale had been tilted by the weight of his father's influence. "I know it will be hard, but you can do it." He clapped Damien's shoulder in a reassuring way.

Cyrus watched the exchange impassively before Aether changed the subject, "Alright, seeing as how we got that depressing bit of business out of the way… how about we give you guys a name?" He gave his signature grin to the young adults in the room.

All of them except for Damien (who did not have any ideas) and Cyrus (who simply did not care enough to give one) started spit-balling ideas. Through the clamor the others made trying to give a good name, one word was spoken softly yet it was heard by everyone in the room.

"Jägers," Jessie's soft-spoken voice carried across the room, drawing the surprised gazes of everyone. No one had expected her to speak up because, naturally being a solitary person, she hadn't said a word since she introduced herself, "Means 'Hunters' in German."

Aether blinked twice before speaking, "Well, it makes sense," he shrugged before addressing everyone else, "Alright, raise your hand if you agree."

Six hands shot up as soon as the question left his mouth, leaving only one person who did not vote. Aether looked to Cyrus, who was lazily picking something out of his ear with his pinky. Damien kicked his ankle lightly, prompting the young man to shoot Damien a faux glare and raise his hand shortly afterward.

Aether clapped his together, pleased with the way things turned out, "Well, that settles it, you all will now be known as the Jägers."

* * *

 **AN: All right, that was a pretty dialogue heavy chapter. I'm pretty proud of myself about that. I noticed before that the characters' actions were more so driving the story rather than their speech and interactions with each other. I'm not sure I'll keep doing it this way all of the time, specifically because it takes a while to come up with things for them to say and interesting ways for those things to be said, but hey, we'll see what happens. Some parts may come off as extra dramatic because of this (The last scene with Damien), but hey, it was necessary to set the next chains of events in motion. But here we see Damien's mission as the details are laid out in front of him. This is the introduction of one-half of a side to this war, now we know what the Demigods of the Protogenoi want. Boom, now let's get this show on the road.**


	4. Street Fighter

_December 16th, 2017_

* * *

Percy's eyes opened slowly. He looked around blearily to find himself lying flat in the floor and on top of random pieces of broken glass and a pool of nectar. So many questions rose within his mind, but he ignored them in favor of finding some clothes. He remembered what happened up until the third or fourth punch he received from Aether, everything after that was just fuzzy.

Percy sat up from his prone position and looked over himself quietly. His body was wound free, which surprised him as the last thing he remembered was being beaten to a pulp whilst trying to save… Artemis!

He jumped to feet, suddenly fueled by a burst of adrenaline as his mind sped into overdrive. "What happened to her? Did one of the gods rescue her? Was she taken by Aether? Did she… did she die?" He stressed mentally.

He surveyed his surroundings quickly, drinking in every detail as he tried to guess his current location. The hospital room that he was in, was completely white with a good amount of medical equipment littered across the room. A hospital bed stood a couple feet from him, the covers were unfurled, and a used hospital gown was laid haphazardly across it.

Percy walked over to it and picked it up, wondering to himself, "Looks like it belonged to a woman" he surmised from the size of the clothing. He looked over to the far corner of the room, by the door, and found a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt laying on top of a gurney.

He hurriedly made his way over to it and put the clothes on. A familiar weight settled itself in his pocket and he pulled out his trusty ballpoint pen, now ready to fight his way out of wherever he was. He crept over to the small door, ready to proceed to the next room when it was swung open by none other than Apollo himself. Percy, not having heard Apollo approach the door was startled and by reflex uncapped Riptide.

Upon opening, however, the gorgeous celestial bronze blade itself split in two and fell apart in Percy's hands. This left Apollo just as surprised as Percy was. They looked at the broken sword laying in the floor and then looked to each other in silence.

"This is one of the more awkward situations I've been in, in a while." He sweatdropped as he watched Percy process what just happened.

Percy did not know why it happened, but he did know two things. One: he was not in any danger what so ever. Two: He had no sword to defend himself with if he was. An intense anger flooded Percy's veins and threatened to burst at the seams as he pictured the cause behind his sword's 'death'. He clenched his fists tightly and gritted his teeth, knowing that he'd never be able to properly avenge Riptide. The sword that formerly belonged to Zoe Nightshade.

In the heat of the moment, he had not noticed it, but hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back at it he realized that when Aether had attempted to viciously murder him by stomping on his head, he had blocked it with his blade. Realistically, it would have broken under the pressure of that god's immense strength. Still, it irked him that he felt more than a little naked now that his sword was no more.

"Woah there Percy, you weren't supposed to be up for another week or so, so chill out before you blow a gasket and end up back in the tank," Apollo said warningly, not really wanting to have to deal with a temper tantrum at the moment.

Percy sighed heavily, reeling back in his emotions, and calming himself. A tinge of sadness crossed his face as he bent down to pick up the broken blade of Riptide. "Is there any way to fix it?"

"I wouldn't know man, that's Hephaestus' territory."

"Right, I'll ask him about it later on before heading back to camp then," Percy sighed before remembering something important and grabbing Apollo's shoulders, "Wait! Apollo, is Artemis okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine… somewhat… actually, we're about to hold a council about that right now," Apollo said seriously, trying and failing to appease the anxious Perseus with his evasive answer.

Percy's eyebrows narrowed as he figured he probably would not like what he was about to hear, "What do you mean?" He asked cautiously.

Apollo met the young man's gaze steadily as he searched Percy's expression for something. He did not know why but for some reason he knew that Percy cared for Artemis just as much as he did. That could be particularly dangerous for them both, he knew this, and he was sure that Percy knew as well, "Just… come to see for yourself," He gave a resigned sigh as he turned to head to the throne room.

Percy hurriedly jogged over to Apollo and soon fell into step with him with ease. The walk there was a relatively short one but to Percy, it felt like it took hours. Something was obviously wrong with Artemis or else Apollo would not have reacted the way he did to his question. What could possibly be the matter though, that is bad enough to make the gods worry? " _I just hope that she is okay…_ " His turbulent thoughts wandered back to her wellbeing.

Percy did not realize that they had reached the doors of the throne room until Apollo had stopped walking. He looked up and locked eyes with Apollo, his easygoing nature had completely vanished and what stood in its place was the visage of an angry warlord. Apollo was in no mood to be trifled with. "He must've been thinking about her too," Percy surmised as he watched the blonde walk to the doors. The sun god threw the doors open with a disguised strength that any unassuming person would be taken aback by. Both god and demigod strode into the room confidently as they gazed at the other gods in a heated discussion.

The throne room was in an uproar as they all tried to talk over one another. Both Olympians and all of the minor gods were yelling back forth with each other. Percy however, drowned them all out as he zeroed in on the short woman who stood in the middle of the room in white robes. She looked He could not see her face for she was facing away from him. Her Auburn tresses fell loosely about her shoulders and that gave him a feeling that she was –

A dramatically loud clap of thunder rang out across the throne room, signaling Zeus' arrival. Percy dragged his attention away from his muse for a moment as he waited for Zeus to speak. The god looked absolutely livid as he silenced everyone in the room by materializing his Master Bolt and slamming it down against the marble floor. Volatile lightning bolts flashed across the room, not hitting anybody but whizzing past them fiercely.

"Silence!" His thunderous voice sounded off viciously, all gods in the throne room froze and directed their attention to him at once.

"I see he's still loud and proud, huh?" Percy observed quietly.

Zeus opened his mouth to speak again, yet the tone this time was much softer, "Apollo, my son, explain to me exactly what happened."

Apollo was visibly disgruntled as the spotlight was turned on him, "Well father… Uncle and I fought Aether after-"

"YOU KNOW THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEAN," Zeus boomed, obviously displeased with Apollo's attempted evasion of the subject.

Apollo was definitely nervous and Percy could see that from the shaking in his hands. A realization came to him as he watched the interaction between father and son, "The gods are afraid of something… terrified even… what the hell happened?"

"TELL ME WHAT VILE AND SACRILEGIOUS ACT HAS BEEN DONE TO MY DAUGHTER?"

Apollo clenched his fists tightly to keep them from shaking, not willing to show fear any longer. Percy's eyebrows raised as his eyes dropped to the robed woman standing in the middle of the room. His stomach dropped, as he suddenly developed a horrible taste in his mouth. He felt his mouth move before he could muster the strength to control himself.

"…Lady Artemis?" He spoke with unabashed caution, so as to not startle her. There she was, the only divine being he had ever addressed by their full title. She turned to him slowly, her pained eyes making contact with his before she had fully turned around. Percy could not stifle his gasp when he realized that there was no ethereal glow around her anymore and neither did her beautiful silver eyes shine the way they used to. She looked much healthier than the last he saw her but much different in another way. Her lips were slightly parted in a silent gasp, it was clear that she did not expect to see him there, probably because he was still supposed to be healing.

She stared at him for a few moments, but to Percy, it felt like a lifetime. His breath caught in his chest as he noted that he had her full and undivided attention. She seemed… powerless, like an unclaimed demigod. Maybe it was more accurate to say that she seemed more mortal than anyone else in the room at the moment. His heart ached for her and his mind punished him for it, as he knew that because he did not protect her properly that something terrible has happened to her.

Artemis studied the young demigod, noting his tense body language and his forlorn expression. He was visibly hurt by the fact that she was in pain. That fact was obvious, what she wanted to know was why that is. Even though it was not his fault that this had happened to her he still bore the full responsibility and shouldered it as his own. He would not forgive himself for this if she left him to his own devices, this much she knew. "I'll have to speak with Perseus after we're done here," She resolved to herself and she spun on her heel and faced her father once more.

"…Father, physically, Artemis is well, her life is not any in danger… at the moment, but the Protogenoi Aether has stripped Artemis of her divinity," Apollo said with a strength that had not been there previously, his hands now shook with anger as his envisioned Aether's patronizing smile.

As if on cue, the throne room burst into a cacophony of Olympians and minor gods alike yelling over each other in a frenzied panic. Unaccustomed to the prospect of being at the mercy of something… so mortal, was unheard of. Zeus sat back in his throne, staring fearfully at Apollo as all of the noise drowned out his thoughts.

Percy openly stared at Artemis with an expression that held an indescribable amount of emotions, they twisted their way across his face as he viewed the proud woman. Once all-powerful, now the shackles of mortality bound her tightly, their grip seizing her immortal soul and draining its vitality. "A god, being stripped of their power? That was like putting pineapples on a pizza; they don't mix. At all."

Thunder clapped once more as everyone settled down, Hestia looked on quietly from her place by the hearth. Her small and supportive smile directed towards Artemis as she stood stall in front of the thrones now, fully reinvigorated.

"I see… Hermes, bring Thalia and the huntresses here, will you?" Zeus spoke quietly as he met Artemis' eyes.

"Roger that, boss man," Hermes responded with less than the usual amount of enthusiasm that he usually brings to the table. He flashed out of the room immediately and afterward, Zeus directed his attention back to Apollo.

"Do you have any idea how he could have done this to her?" Zeus asked warily, now fully acknowledging the genuine threat this posed to all of their livelihoods.

"I actually have an idea what it was that did it," Hephaestus spoke up from his metallic throne, "It could have been his weapon that caused this to happen."

At this Athena's facial expression turned to one of surprise as she came to a terrible realization. Zeus noticed immediately and voiced his concern, "What is the matter, daughter?"

"Father… Aether may actually have the power to take the celestial power of a being away, through his blade," She said with an air of caution, knowing how her father would react to this news.

Zeus' voice boomed across the throne room in response as he stood from his throne, his giant feet sounding like large boulders as they hit the floor, "That is preposterous! He is the protogenoi of the upper air, not of divine beings."

"Father, please, calm down, I have not yet finished" Athena responded quickly, she knew she had to bring the situation back under her control or else Zeus might send them all to battle without so much as a second thought.

Zeus clenched his jaw, staring at his daughter with hard eyes before he exhaled deeply through his nose and sat back down, "My apologies, you may continue," an awkward pause followed in the wake of his statement as Athena sighed, just glad to have convinced her father to reign in his raging emotions.

Athena nodded at that and continued her proposal, "Yes, he is not the god of divine beings," She agreed which confused many people because they thought that she was not going to agree with Zeus, "While that is true, if he's the protogenoi of upper air, which is the pure air that the Gods breathe, then it would make sense that he also has the ability to take that away from us."

"What are you trying to say, Athena?"

"If Aether were to take away one's ability to breathe the air of the gods, then theoretically that god would also be stripped of their divinity, as the body would no longer have the power to support them taking a breath as one of the gods." Athena finished solemnly, locking eyes with Artemis as she spoke. She saw the hidden pain in her eyes that she would have missed if she did not know her sister better. Artemis was far too proud to express how distraught she was at the moment. That woman was expressing a mental fortitude that she wished they all possessed. The strength that was needed in order to even stay sane after such a traumatic ordeal was immense.

"…So, I'm to remain a mortal then?" Artemis' quiet voice snatched the attention of all in the throne room.

"No," Athena responded, watching her father out of the corner of her eye tensely, "There is a way to return your divinity to you, and make you a god once more."

Zeus' eyebrows raised at the same time as Artemis and Percy. After a short pause, Athena continued, "The Ophiotaurus is the only way." Gasps and hushed whispers filled the room as Zeus stared at Artemis. All the other Olympians stared at Artemis as she stood there silently processing this new information. As of right now, in terms of Divinity and Abilities, she was no different from your average demigod. Her strength was currently level with a child of Hermes. However, she would never be the same god she as, ever again. In order to regain her godhood, she would have to become something different entirely. Something more powerful than even Zeus himself. Would he even be willing to grant one of his children a power greater than his own?

Zeus looked at his favored daughter closely, remembering all that he had done in the past in order to keep others from gaining more power than himself. He knew what he should do. He should either eat her or put her to death in order to prevent her from becoming stronger than him. It was a damning thing to think about. But, the more he tried to get himself to move, to bring the idea into existence… He froze. He could not bring himself to do it, his memories of his father and his own hypocritical actions afterward were at the forefront of his mind. No, he knew what had to do.

The king of the gods finally spoke, his face hardened by conviction, "…I will sanction the sacrifice of this Ophiotaurus."

The room was so silent afterward that a pin dropping to the floor could have been heard. The surprise was palpable and the tension thick enough to cut with a butter knife. "Did he just willingly give away a power greater than his own?" Athena thought incredulously.

"Who are you and what the hell have you done with my brother?" Poseidon asked warily, the confusion settling on his face was shared by many of the current occupants of the room.

"If allowing this to happen means that my daughter will live on than I am willing to give up being the most powerful God on Olympus," Zeus responded with an air of finality.

"Father, you do know that this means, by right, she will be required to claim your throne as well?" Athena did not mean to the question sound rhetorical but she could not help it, because her father was currently doing the unthinkable.

"Yes, I do."

Artemis stared at her father, completely floored by the idea that he was willing to allow her to gain the power to rule or destroy Olympus if she so pleased. It made no sense. All these millennia, he has run from the fate of one of his children becoming greater than he. The fate of the succession of the father had been passed down from his own to him. Now, however, it was a daughter that was to surpass the father. What had changed his thoughts on this? To put aside the indomitable pride that he has carried for millennia… in just one instant. However skeptical she was though, she could not be mad at him for saying what he did. He had just committed one of the most selfless acts she has seen him do in a very long time.

"Th- Thank you, father," Her voice choked up as she spoke, not willing to fully follow her wishes.

Zeus nodded at her and looked to Apollo, "Apollo, I'd like you to accompany your sister on her hunt, so she is safe from any deterrents in her quest." Apollo nodded resolutely while standing up from his throne.

"While that would be fine in most cases, there is an issue with that," Aphrodite interjected quickly, finally speaking up during this meeting. A smile was plastered on her face as she twirled her finger around in the air, "Artemis is no longer immortal, which means that us gods cannot directly interfere with her anymore."

Athena raised an eyebrow as she looked at Aphrodite briefly from the corner of her eye before looking directly Percy, "Yes, Aphrodite is correct, but there is someone who can complete this task."

Percy got her meaning immediately and nodded at her, "I'll protect her to the best of my ability," at this Zeus closed his eyes and released a deep breath through his nose.

"As you should, Perseus," he agreed resolutely, with that he stood from his throne and dismissed the lot of them, "Now that we've come to an agreement, I think this concludes our business here.

Zeus flashed out of the throne room with all of the other gods in tow, with the exception of Apollo. Artemis rounded on Percy immediately, intending to demand his reasons for looking at her the way he does. It was as if his eyes were expressing a need for something that he could not vocalize. That may prove to be detrimental to their hunt and she would rather nip it in the bud now than have it potentially endanger them both later.

But, before she could open her mouth to speak, her twin brother's voice made itself known behind her, "So, it looks like I'm your ride to Camp Half-Blood, huh?" He said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

Artemis half-turned in order to look her brother in the eyes, not really in much of a mood to put up with his banter, she said simply, "It would seem so, Apollo."

Percy gave Apollo a crooked smile, before responding in kind, "Hopefully we don't have to ride in your sun chariot this time, because neither you or Thalia can drive."

"Hey now, how about you drive it then; since you're so much better at it," Apollo proposed sarcastically.

"And get us zapped out of the sky? Not today Satan," Percy said while shaking his head and crossing his arms across his chest in the shape of an 'X'.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think that riding with two of Zeus' kids will buy you a bit of insurance," Apollo winked at Percy, knowing that he was going to cave eventually.

Percy shook his head silently, before relenting, "…. Fine, but if we die, I blame you."

Laughing loudly as he tossed Percy the keys, Apollo flashed his famous gigawatt smile before he said, "God's don't die, kiddo."

* * *

The bell above the door rung as he walked inside. This place was located in Cleveland, Ohio and it was a quaint little coffee shop. Hermes stopped at the threshold and looked around the coffee shop he was in, as he noted that it was full of young women. The ages of the girls looked like they ranged from around 11 up until the age of 25. Unsurprisingly though, they filled the seats to the many tables in the room. Any unassuming man would be in heaven with the number of beautiful women that were in this one building together. And it would be that same man that would be the one to be parted from his manhood for approaching one of them.

"I'm definitely in the right place," he thought to himself as he loosened the collar of his blue pinstripe suit a bit. No matter what the situation was, dealing with the huntresses of Artemis could always get messy. Especially when it came to Apollo and him, because of their frequent sexcapades with various women.

Deciding that it was time for him to get this show on the road, he took a step into the coffee shop and immediately thirty-six pairs of eyes locked in on him. Hermes sweat dropped and gulped loudly before continuing to walk through the medium sized-coffee shop. They all watched him closely as he walked through the coffee shop to get the cash register. Approaching the woman behind the register, who was reorganizing the bills, he attempted to speak to her… only to be ignored. He tried to garner her attention around six more times before she finally looked up to meet his eyes.

At once he was stricken by her beauty, she was tall with curly brown hair, light green eyes, and skin the color of mocha. She had a heart-shaped face with full, naturally pink lips. Hermes cleared throat loudly, in order to regain his composure. Only to lose his nerve once he saw the dangerous edge that her eyes held.

"She's one of them too?" He thought with an exasperated sigh, "Oh gods, they're everywhere."

"Uh, look," He began carefully, "I don't mean to bother you but I'm looking for a woman named-, "

She cut him off before he was able to finish his sentence, "No,"

He stared at her blankly before trying again with her, "If you would please, I just need to-, "

"I said, no," and just like that, it was like a block of ice settled itself across the room. Hermes felt all of the eyes in the room staring holes into his back. A visible shiver went down the back of his neck.

"Oh, what in the actual fuck?" He genuinely wondered as he turned around to see a tall, brolic woman, stand from her chair and begin to cross the room towards him. "That has to be a man."

"Hey now, relax guys," At that new voice Hermes released the breath he did not know he had been holding. Hermes turned to the direction the voice had come from. Thalia came from one of the back rooms, using a dishrag to dry her wet hands. Listening to a little closer, Hermes could hear a toilet flushing in the background. A bright smile crossed his face as he met Thalia halfway.

"Now, Hermes, you feeling alright?" She asked with a genuine tinge of concern, "You're looking a little pale, there."

"These huntresses are the only beings alive that make me fear for my manhood," he replied with an awkward chuckle, it's not every day that you come across a group of diehard man-hating females.

Laughing heartily, Thalia looked at Hermes with amusement coloring her voice, and said, "Scared of a bunch of girls, are you?"

"You're damn right,"

Finishing her laughter, Thalia gestured to an empty booth and they both sat down across from each other. The moment they sat down Hermes put his game face on and Thalia matched his intensity.

"All right, umm, why the change in scenery?" Hermes broke the ice, whilst turning his eyes to the rest of the room. While it was a weird thing to mention, it was just as weird that their current command post would be a coffee shop.

"Oh, you mean this?" Thalia gestured to the rest of the room nonchalantly and shrugged her shoulders, "Lady Artemis told me to pick the spot to wait for her at this time."

Hermes chuckled a bit and scratched his head, "That makes sense," he agreed, before deciding that he had danced around the task at hand long enough. And apparently, so had she.

"So, what can I do for you, brother?" Thalia leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. The question sounded innocent enough, but he knew what it truly meant. "Any news on lady Artemis?"

"Father says that he wants you and the huntresses to appear at the council today," Hermes sighed, "It's not looking good for Artemis, either."

This caused Thalia to sit up a little straighter in her seat, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, she has been robbed of her immortality, by the foreign power to she was supposed to track down," Hermes then dropped his voice to that of a whisper and said, "and according to both Poseidon and Apollo, that person she had been hunting was Aether, the primordial god of light."

At that moment that name was spoken, the bell above the coffee shop door rang again. Two men walked in the front door and headed straight for the cash register, completely oblivious to the glares that they were receiving. The first man was tall, extremely so, he looked to be around 6'5". His black hoodie did nothing to hide his muscular physique and his dark, shaggy hair, failed to hide the look in his eyes. He looked… like a predator. It was like he was a wolf that had stepped into a room full of sheep.

A shiver ran down the cashier's neck as she waited for them both to reach her, she reached underneath the counter and gripped the hunting knife that was holstered there.

The second man, Hermes noted when he turned to observe them, was an effeminate male, with braided blonde hair, dressed in a trench coat… "Holy –"

"You of all people should know better than to so carelessly utter the name of one much more powerful than yourself, kiddo," He heard the blonde man whisper to him from across the room. "Names do have power, you know?"

Hermes stood from his seat abruptly, and narrowed his eyes at the two men at the register, "Thalia, listen to me carefully, withdraw all of your huntresses and get the hell out of here," Hermes clenched his fists tightly, "Right. Now."

Thalia's eyes widened as she sensed his severity but couldn't help but wonder where that was coming from. "Hermes, what's going on?"

"That man right there is the single most dangerous individual I've ever laid my eyes on." He pointed at the beach blonde man at the register who was casually ordering a cup of coffee.

Aether gave a word of thanks to the lady at the register as she gave him the cup of joe and he took a sip without a care in the world. "Ah, that's some damn good coffee," He turned to the man who was accompanying him, "Alright kid, you know the drill, don't kill anyone… yet."

"So, I can have a bit of fun today?" A wild grin crept across the man's face.

Aether shrugged, "Go nuts, Jackson."

At that confirmation, the man giddily reached over the counter and grabbed the cashier by the back of her head, much quicker than she could react to, before proceeding to slam her face directly into the counter. All the huntresses in the room stood at once in response to the this and drew all of their well-hidden weapons. The brawl began without a word of warning. The female warriors met Jackson halfway as the sprinted at each other. He fought bare-handed in an animalistic type of fighting style. Landing a devastating punch on the brolic woman, he spun around to catch the knife headed for his jugular, with his bare hands. Launching an elbow at the huntress' throat, the blow caused a loud and sickening crunch at the point of impact. The woman crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Jackson's downright evil smile widened to the point of being unnatural as he released a bit of power in order to introduce himself to these women "properly".

Aether facepalmed as he watched the chaos ensue, "I thought that I just told this guy not to kill anyone," he said aloud while shaking his head. A chair flew past his head and broke against the wall behind him. "Well, at least one of us is having fun."

Looking back at Hermes, he noted that the man hadn't moved yet. He guessed that they were in the middle of a Mexican standoff… but waiting is for the birds. Aether took a step in Hermes' direction, thumping his foot against the ground and the next thing Hermes knew, Aether's hand was on his face.

"FAST!" was the only thought that Hermes had the opportunity before he was forcibly flashed to another area by Aether. Thalia, who had watched the entire exchange, was completely at a loss as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. However, upon hearing a loud scream, she looked over to the brawl in the middle of the coffee shop and noted that the lone male was actually winning the fight. That thought itself seemed ridiculous as his odds were 36:1. But, there he was, a monster in his own right, choke slamming a huntress so hard that the impact cracked the wooden flooring. He was shot with arrows more than a few times, but they all just bounced off his skin. Their attempts to stab, cut, and maim him all failed as well. This made them all wonder just what the hell his skin was made of. Thalia twister the ring on her finger and from it sprang forth her spear.

Channeling electricity through the spear, she stalked over to the man and prepared to show him just why the huntresses of Artemis were revered as some of the greatest warriors to ever live.

….

A monster. That was what they just fought. One man, that was all it took to almost completely decimate the ranks of the Huntresses of Artemis. It happened so quick. One moment Thalia had given them the upper hand. They had begun to push him back and wound him. Yet, the next moment she was sent flying across the room as if she weighed nothing more than a paperweight. The sound she made when she crashed into the wall so hard that she cracked the plaster, sucked the morale out every huntress in the room. After that, it did not take long for that monstrosity of a human being to make short work of everyone else.

Phoebe watched him as he beat and broke her fallen sisters, it was brutal and cruel. The sickening laughter told everyone who still had enough consciousness to hear it, that he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

A monster. That is exactly what he was. The man named Jackson stalked across the room in his blood-spattered clothing and roughly snatched the still unconscious Thalia from her place against the wall by her short hair. He dragged her with ease to the middle of the room, before unceremoniously dropping her in the floor next to the others.

The man then pulled up a chair next to her and sat down cross-legged, picking at something between his teeth with his pinky claw. Phoebe tried to move, to try her hand at saving her lieutenant. But, both her left leg and left arm were bent at awkward angles. She wasn't even sure when that had happened. But what she did know was that that thing they had fought, was not a god. He was of godly descent just as they were, as indicated by the red color of his blood that they saw when Thalia had joined the fray.

The thought of something like that sitting in the same room as she terrified her into silence. The feeling went against everything she knew as a child of Ares. She should be excited, more than prepared to fight to the death with that thing. But, what she felt right now, was nowhere in the vicinity of enthused. She would much rather be anywhere than here. Phoebe bit her lip as hard as she could in order to muffle the sound as pained and frustrated tears came out without her permission. For them all to be reduced to such a state, in a matter of moments… it was shameful. Her cowering in the corner was even more so, yet there was nothing that she could do about it. If she tried, she would be murdered in cold blood.

The bell above the door rang for a third time that evening. Phoebe sneaked a peek at Aether as he reentered the coffee shop and whistled at the sheer destruction that lay before him.

"Hi, welcome to Chili's," Jackson spread his arms wide and smiled as he proudly presented to Aether his masterpiece.

"Dude, I thought I told you not to kill anyone," Aether's exasperated sigh could be heard from a mile away.

"Sorry," Jackson grunted whilst scratching his head, "I got a little too excited and lost control."

"I can see that," Aether responded while shaking his own head, "Well, I suppose this will work as well."

"Oh, I kept the package… somewhat intact," Jackson said as he grabbed Thalia by the hair again and held her up for Aether to see with ease.

At Aether's skeptical look, he assured him, "I promise you, she's still breathing."

"Good, bring her with you then," Aether nodded and chuckled at the young man, before turning a walking to the door.

Jackson grunted in agreement and began dragging her towards the door. Just before they left though, a thought came to him, "Hey, what did you do with that Hermes guy from earlier?"

"Oh him?" Aether stopped walking and half-turned in order to look Jackson in the eyes, "I beat him within an inch of fading and then let him go," At the mention of this Aether's normally warm smile turned cold, "I want him to know that I can make him fade anytime I want. I want him to be the one to tell his father, that this war has only just begun."

That response made Jackson smile a truly sinister smile, "And we will crush them all."

"That we will, kiddo," Aether agreed, "that we will."

* * *

 **AN: Okay, so it's been a while. I'm not really sure what to say about that besides the fact that I'm back. Haha, life caught up to me in all of the worst ways so I had to put this on hold for a while but it's all good now. Ah, but back to the story though. This sudden memory loss that Percy is interesting, makes you wonder exactly what it is that he truly has forgotten between his thorough ass-kicking from Aether and now. But, the plot is starting to show itself a bit more now. We have the Jaegers, who moved their first piece on the chess board by kidnapping Thalia for who knows what. And we have the Olympians, who are clearly being forced into fighting this seemingly impossible enemy. But truthfully, I'm starting to like Jackson more and more as I write him. His raw and unchained personality is pretty cool to describe, even though he is evil as all hell.**

 **Oh, and I'm debating on whether or not I need to show had happened between Aether and Hermes, in the next chapter. I don't really think I need to because it was pretty self-explanatory, but if you guys want to read that then just let me know.**

 **Until next time~**


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